Consumer Overdrafts

This guide explains the integration process for Solaris' Overdraft product for retail customers (Consumers), including the mandatory information you must collect from your customers and the necessary endpoints and webhooks you must integrate into your solution.

Introduction

Product specifications

Consumer overdrafts are currently only available for customers in Germany with a current bank account with Solaris. For step-by-step instructions on person onboarding for Digital Banking and Cards, check the Person onboarding guide.

Check the overview page for more details on the product specifications.

User journey

Your customers can apply for an overdraft on your frontend by completing the following steps:

• Provide the mandatory information for overdrafts onboarding.
• Consent to Solaris' performing an account snapshot and credit checks in relation to the overdraft application.
• Once the customer passes the credit checks, the application will be approved, and the customer receives a notification and the pre-contractual overdraft agreement and terms and conditions to review.
• The customer must sign the overdraft's terms and conditions and agreement.
• Solaris creates the overdraft on the customer's account and the customer can use the overdraft limit right away.

Credit scoring

Solaris uses an automated credit scoring system to make informed credit decisions on consumer overdraft applications. The scorer collects and analyzes different information, such as the customer's financial information, credit data, transaction history, and outstanding loans, to assess their creditworthiness and determine their risk level and credit eligibility.

Based on different checks done throughout the application lifecycle, the scorer estimates the probability of default (PD), assigns a rating class to the customer, which determines whether an overdraft is offered and the limit amount granted.

Credit risk analysis

The scorer uses the following information in the credit risk analysis:

1. Account snapshot

Solaris collects information about the customer's account data and history from their current account with Solaris. Such information includes account balance, transaction history, bookings, and recurrent repayment amounts.

2. Information from credit agencies

Credit information and score about the customer, collected from external credit bureaus (e.g., SCHUFA).

Webhooks

Solaris recommends subscribing to the following webhook events to better automate your processes:

• CONSUMER_OVERDRAFT_APPLICATION: The status of a consumer overdraft application has changed.
• CONSUMER_OVERDRAFT: The status of a consumer overdraft has changed.
• OVERDRAFT_LIMIT_CHANGE: The overdraft limit has changed.

For detailed instructions on implementing Solaris webhooks, check the webhooks documentation.

Integration flow

The following sequence diagram gives an overview of the integration flow for the Consumer Overdrafts solution:

Integration steps

Integrate Solaris' Consumer Overdrafts by completing the following steps:

Consumer overdraft application creation

1. Collect the required information for the overdraft application from your customers on your frontend.
2. Customers consent to performing an account snapshot and credit checks in relation to the overdraft application.
3. Create a credit record for the customer by completing Step 1.
4. Create a consumer overdraft application by completing Step 2.
5. Solaris' credit scoring system assesses the credit record and application data and issues a verdict on the overdraft application with either rejection or acceptance.

Overdraft creation and servicing

If Solaris rejects the overdraft application, notify the customer of the rejection on your frontend.

If Solaris accepts the overdraft application:

1. Notify the customer of the approval on your frontend.
2. Download SECCI and overdraft terms and conditions forms by completing Step 3
3. Send Solaris' special terms and conditions for overdrafts and the pre-contractual overdraft agreement to the customer as a PDF.
4. Record the customer's consent to the terms and conditions and the overdraft loan agreement as a UTC timestamp.
5. Create the overdraft on the customer's account by completing Step 4.
6. Solaris credits the overdraft limit to the customer's account as an external balance.
7. Check the section Servicing overdrafts for additional information on how to maintain and service overdrafts for your customers.

You can find detailed descriptions of these steps and their related endpoints in the following sections.

Step 1: Create consumer credit record

In this step, you must create a consumer credit record and link it to the person resource of the relevant customer.

What is a credit record?

The credit record contains the customer's credit data and history. Creating a credit record is usually required in lending products integrations as it's used for credit scoring to determine the customer's creditworthiness and eligibility.

Integrate the following endpoints to create credit records for your retail customers.

API reference

Visit the following link to find all the endpoints related to the credit record resource, including related properties and examples.

• Credit record resource API reference

To create a credit record for your customer, you can use one of the following endpoints depending on your customer type. You can create a credit record in two ways:

1. Via Solaris:

To create a credit record via Solaris, set the source field to solarisBank in the request body and Solaris will pull the customer's record directly from SCHUFA.

2. Manual upload:

In this case, you will collect the credit record manually through SCHUFA and/or other third-party service providers and upload the file to Solaris. Set the source field to partner and include the file content in the file field (Base64-encoded).

POST Create a credit record for a retail customer

Request URL

POST /v1/persons/{person_id}/credit_records

Click here to view the full API reference

POST Create a credit record for a freelancer

Request URL

POST /v1/freelancers/persons/{person_id}/credit_records

Click here to view the full API reference

GET Retrieve a credit record

This endpoint returns the information about a customer's existing credit record, including the status and validity of the credit record. Add the person_id and the credit_record_id in the request URL. If the status of the credit record is expired, you must create a new one for the customer.

Request URL

GET /v1/persons/{person_id}/credit_records/{credit_record_id}

Click here to view the full API reference

Step 2: Create consumer overdraft application

In this step, you must pass the mandatory information you collected from the customer in your sign-up flow to Solaris by creating a consumer overdraft application.

The overdraft application includes all the required information about the customer and links to other mandatory resources, such as credit_record or account_iban.

POST Create consumer overdraft application

This endpoint creates a consumer overdraft application for the customer with the person_id specified in the request URL.

Mandatory properties:

Add the following mandatory properties in the request body:

• credit_record_id: The unique ID of a person's credit record, generated after creating a credit record.
• net_income_amount: The customer's net income, declared in the sign-up flow.
• identification_id: The unique identification ID of a person generated after completing the person identification process.
• employment_status: The consumer's employment status, declared by the customer in the sign-up flow. Possible values are: EMPLOYED, UNEMPLOYED, PUBLIC_SECTOR_EMPLOYEE, PROFESSIONAL_SOLDIER, FREELANCER, HOUSEWORK, APPRENTICE, MANAGEMENT, RETIRED, STUDENT, SELF_EMPLOYED, or MILITARY_OR_COMMUNITY_SERVICE.
• account_iban: The IBAN of a person account.

Optional properties:

• partner_requested_limit: A field to request a specific overdraft limit amount. Add the amount in Euro, cents.
• minimum_credit_risk_criteria: An object that contains different credit risk related properties that are required for the credit scoring system. This field could be mandatory depending on your use case. If applicable, Solaris will share with you the fields that you must collect from the customer.

Request URL

POST /v1/persons/{person_id}/consumer_overdraft_applications

Response example

The API call returns an object with a unique id for the consumer overdraft application, including the application status, set initially to scoring_pending, and the remaining attributes, which will be populated during the application lifecycle.

{
  "status_description": "string",
  "status": "scoring_pending",
  "person_id": "dc1a6812a14f6cc338cd084208535bcdcper",
  "partner_risk_class": "D",
  "partner_reference_number": "123456",
  "partner_id": "6ee8e4c8bdc2f9b15870c989706aa9cccpar",
  "partner_contact_number": "+491565904345",
  "partner_contact_name": "Peter Mustermann",
  "overdraft_id": "null",
  "net_income_amount": {
    "value": 1000,
    "unit": "cents",
    "currency": "EUR"
  },
  "minimum_credit_risk_criteria": { 
    "criteria_1": false,
    "criteria_2": 0.2
  },
  "limit": {
    "value": 0,
    "unit": "cents",
    "currency": "EUR"
  },
  "identification_id": "9dfe2f4edaa67138be0c0c1cd3a7d849cidt",
  "id": "b83z264de98741018419b53648e20ca9coap",
  "employment_status": "EMPLOYED",
  "credit_record_id": "fbb7d15fa4c54ba0b077592665ef04a4ccrd",
  "created_at": "2020-20-03T18:01:48.000Z",
  "account_iban": "DE87110101001000057123"
}

Click here to view the full API reference

GET Retrieve consumer overdraft application

This endpoint returns the current status and details of an existing consumer overdraft application. For a list of possible values of the application status and their descriptions, check the appendix.

Additionally, subscribe to the webhook event CONSUMER_OVERDRAFT_APPLICATION to receive status updates on the application.

Request URL:

GET /v1/persons/{person_id}/overdraft_applications/{overdraft_application_id}

Click here to view the full API reference

Step 3: Download SECCI and conditions form

In this step, you must download the following documents and share them with the customer:

• A SECCI form: an overview of the final overdraft offer.
• Overdraft conditions: the terms and conditions of the overdraft.

GET Download SECCI form

Request URL

GET /v1/persons/{person_id}/consumer_overdraft_applications/{application_id}/pre_contract

Click here to view the full API reference

GET Download overdraft conditions form

Request URL

GET /v1/persons/{person_id}/consumer_overdraft_applications/{application_id}/conditions

Click here to view the full API reference

Step 4: Create consumer overdraft

After Solaris approves the overdraft application, you must complete the following steps:

1. Inform the customer of the approval on your frontend, and send as a PDF the overdraft pre-contractual agreement and terms and conditions. Solaris will provide these documents.
2. Collect and record the customer's consent to the overdraft's special terms and conditions and agreement as a UTC timestamp. The consent must NOT be older than 24 hours.
3. Create the overdraft on the customer's account by calling PUT Create the overdraft.

PUT Create the overdraft

This endpoint creates the overdraft on the customer's account. You must include the customer's application_id and person_id in the request URL. Additionally, include the following mandatory properties in the request body:

• account_id: The ID of the customer's account at Solaris.
• tnc_accepted_at: The UTC timestamp from when the customer's accepted the overdraft's terms and conditions and agreement.

Request URL

PUT /v1/persons/{person_id}/consumer_overdraft_applications/{overdraft_application_id}/overdraft

Response example

The API call returns the overdraft information, including the overdraft id, limit, and overdraft_rate. Afterward, the overdraft application status should change to overdraft_created.

  {
    "status": "created"
    "person_id": "dc1a6812a14f6cc338cd084208535bcdcper",
    "overdraft_rate": 8,
    "limit": {
        "currency": "EUR",
        "unit": "cents",
        "value": 3000
    },
    "interest_accural_rate": 0,  
    "id": "229dk5f7ba3b4d69be20555dce1c8a3ccovd",
    "created_at": "2020-20-03T18:01:48.000Z",
    "consumer_application_id": "b83z264de98741018419b53648e20ca9coap",
    "account_iban": "DE87110101001000057123"
  }

Click here to view the full API reference

GET Retrieve consumer overdraft

This endpoint returns all the details of an existing consumer overdraft, assigned to the person with the person_id in the request URL. Additionally, subscribe to the webhook event CONSUMER_OVERDRAFT to receive status updates about the overdraft.

Request URL

GET /v1/persons/{person_id}/consumer_overdrafts/{overdraft_id}

Response example

The API call returns the overdraft object with the unique id and includes the overdraft's details, such as limit and overdraft_rate. The status returned in the response refers to the overdraft's status. For a list of possible values and their descriptions, check the Appendix.

{
  "status": "created",
  "person_id": "dc1a6812a14f6cc338cd084208535bcdcper",
  "overdraft_rate": 9,
  "negative_since": "2021-08-03T18:01:48Z",
  "limit": {
    "value": 1000,
    "unit": "cents",
    "currency": "EUR"
  },
  "interest_accrued": {
    "value": 1000,
    "unit": "cents",
    "currency": "EUR"
  },
  "interest_accrual_rate": 3,
  "id": "00556cd181f2409aaa6c2a033cce3a8fcovd",
  "created_at": "2021-08-03T18:01:48.000Z",
  "consumer_application_id": "b83z264de98741018419b53648e20ca9coap",
  "account_iban": "DE87110101001000057123"
}

Click here to view the full API reference

Servicing overdrafts

This section includes important information about handling and monitoring active overdrafts.

Overdrafts limits and interest

Overdraft limits cannot be exceeded for any SEPA transfers, direct debits, payments, or withdrawals, except for charged interest fees by Solaris. Any payment exceeding the limit will be rejected.

Overdrafts monitoring (Optional)

For specific overdraft-related events, you can monitor the account, implement specific event triggers, and provide pre-defined messages to the user.

For example, you can implement event triggers and send out reminders to customers in the following events:

• The customer has used 90% of the overdraft limit or only 100€ remaining in the limit.
• Three days before the interest payment is due to customers with a used overdraft at the end of each quarter.

Overdrafts booking types

Using the overdraft limit reflects on the customer's account statement for interest charges. The following booking types are distinct to overdraft interest charges:

• InterestOverdraft: The interest accrued in relation to the used portion of the overdraft limit.
• InterestOverdraftExceeded: The interest accrued in relation to exceeding the overdraft limit (Note that the limit itself cannot be exceeded for regular transactions except for interest charges).

Overdrafts termination

To terminate an overdraft, you must send an overdraft termination request to Solaris either via creating a JIRA ticket or by sending an email to support@solarisbank.de. Solaris will process the request internally and remove the overdraft limit from the customer's account.

Account closure for accounts with an overdraft

In case of Account Closure Requests (ACR) for accounts with an attached overdraft, you must first terminate the overdraft before initiating the ACR process.

Overdrafts in statements of account & bank statements

Each statement of account and bank statement generated for customers with overdrafts will contain the following overdraft information for the statement period:

• overdraft_facility: Overdraft facility that has been granted to the customer.
• overdraft_rate: The increased interest rate applied when going below the granted overdraft facility.
• interest_accrual_rate: The daily rate at which interest is accrued on the used amount of an overdraft.
• interest_accrued: The interest accrued, in Euro cents.

See the Account management guide for more information.

What's next?

Congratulations! You've successfully integrated Solaris' Consumer Overdraft solution.

Check the following appendices section for additional information on enums and testing data.

For an overview of Solaris' lending products, check the lending products overview page.

Useful resources

Check the following links for additional related guides and API reference documentation.

• Consumer Overdrafts API Reference documentation
• Overdrafts overview
• Person Onboarding Guide

Appendix I: Enums

Consumer overdraft application statuses

These are the possible values for the field status in the consumer overdraft application resource.

Consumer overdraft statuses

These are the possible values for the field status, which indicates the status of an overdraft that is already offered.