Upcoming requirements updates

Last updated: October 13, 2025

Understand the changes to verification requirements

To align with regulations from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), Stripe is updating our verification requirements for Know Your Customer (KYC) and ultimate beneficial owners (UBO) and directors.

If your connected accounts operate in any of the listed countries, you might need to update your onboarding flow. Failure to make required updates will disrupt your connected accounts’ access to payments and financial services.

To learn more about what is changing and why, see the new compliance requirements support article.

The upcoming changes affect connected accounts in the following countries:

Choose an integration approach

Stripe recommends using Stripe-hosted or Embedded onboarding to collect business and identity verification requirements. These options require fewer resources to implement and maintain than using API onboarding. The following table describes the major differences:

• Stripe-hosted onboarding: Recommended Send accounts to a Stripe-hosted flow to submit required information.
• Embedded onboarding: Recommended Embed Stripe-provided onboarding components that let accounts submit information directly to Stripe from within your app.
• API onboarding: Build and manage a custom onboarding flow using Stripe APIs.

Learn more about Connect onboarding options and migrating your API-based onboarding and remediation flows to Stripe-hosted or embedded flows.

The changes you make to your onboarding flow depend on how you collect onboarding information. In addition to updating your onboarding flow, update your internal and external documentation as needed, and prepare your support teams to answer questions about the updates.

If you use Stripe-hosted or Embedded onboarding, then you don’t need to update your integration to prepare for these requirement updates. However, you can communicate to your connected accounts that Stripe might request new or updated identity information when requirements change.

API integration overview

If you choose not to migrate to Stripe-hosted or Embedded onboarding, then you need to address the following updates:

• Know Your Customer (KYC) verification
• Ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) and director relationship verification
• Netherlands business registration (KvK) requirements

Update timeline

The following timeline explains the key milestones for these changes. Make sure to update and test your integration early to avoid any issues when the new requirements take effect.

Know your customer (KYC) verification

Stripe is strengthening our identity verification process, which might require some of your connected accounts to provide additional information. We’re also adding more options to the API for verifying information.

The following entities must provide verifiable KYC information:

• Legal entity (for individuals and sole proprietor entities);
• Account representative
• UBOs and directors (for accounts deemed high risk by the Stripe risk model)

Alternative verification methods

If initial verification fails, you can try one of the following methods:

• Stripe Identity Recommended
• National ID verification

You can also still upload additional documents.

Stripe Identity Recommended

You can attempt to verify connected accounts that fail their automatic verification by using Stripe Identity. Identity works by capturing a selfie and an ID document. Most European countries support Stripe Identity, and success rates vary by country.

Create an Identity verification session and use the related_person parameter to submit document and proof_of_liveness requirements for the person. You can check the results using the API or the Dashboard.

National ID verification Public preview

In the countries affected by this update, you can improve verification of a connected account representative by providing their national ID number in addition to their name, birthdate, address, and nationality.

Verification currently supports only the following national ID numbers.

You can provide national ID numbers only for connected accounts in the countries affected by this update. For example, you can provide the ID number for a Spanish citizen acting as a representative for a connected account in Austria, but you can’t provide the ID number for a Spanish citizen acting as a representative for a connected account in the US.

Relationship verification for UBOs and directors

Stripe is enhancing our verification process for ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs) and directors. European regulations require verification of the relationship of UBOs and directors to the legal entity:

• UBO: An individual who owns or controls (directly or indirectly) more than 25% of a legal entity (for example, companies, corporations, LLCs, and partnerships).
• Director: A board member or senior person responsible for managing a business (for example, CEO, COO, managing director).

The following table shows the relationships that must be verified for each legal entity type:

Verification process

Connected accounts type in UBO or director information (name, date of birth, address). Stripe attempts to verify the person’s relationship to the legal entity using third-party sources. If automatic verification fails, the account can upload an official document or sign a digital attestation.

If the account chooses digital attestation, use the following document templates.

Templates:

• Ultimate beneficial owner digital attestation template
• Director digital attestation template

Prefill UBO and director information Private preview

Stripe is developing an API that provides a programmatically detected set of UBOs or directors associated with the legal entity. You can present this set to connected accounts for confirmation (prefill). Prefill increases verification rates and reduces friction. If you’re interested in prefill for UBO or director verification, sign up to express your interest below.

Netherlands business registration (KvK) requirements

Starting in 2026, we’re enforcing stricter business type requirements for Netherlands (NL) accounts to ensure compliance with Dutch regulations. This specifically affects how we collect the KvK (Kamer van Koophandel), the unique 8-digit company registration number required for businesses in the Netherlands.

What’s changing

1. Individual business type is no longer supported

The individual business type is no longer supported for Netherlands accounts. This affects: Existing and new NL accounts with business_type: "individual" and business_type: "sole_proprietorship"

Why this matters: In the Netherlands, every business must provide a KvK (Chamber of Commerce) number. Our “individual” business type doesn’t collect a KvK, which makes it non-compliant.

2. New error code: unsupported_business_type

Accounts with invalid business types see a new error in their requirements:

// Account with unsupported business type
{
  "id": "acct_123",
  "business_type": "individual",
  "country": "NL",
  "requirements": {
    "past_due": ["business_type"],
    "errors": [{
      "requirement": "business_type",
      "code": "unsupported_business_type",
      "reason": "Business type isn't supported in merchant country. 'individual' isn't a supported business type in country NL."
    }]
  }
}

3. Collect KvK registration for unincorporated accounts

Existing and new NL accounts with the following business types and structures are required to provide KvK registration.

• business_type: "company" and business_structure: "unincorporated_partnership"
• business_type: "non_profit" and business_structure: "unincorporated_non_profit"

Why this matters: unincorporated accounts are currently not required to provide a KvK number, which violates Dutch compliance requirements. All NL businesses must provide their KvK registration.

How to resolve

For existing accounts

Existing NL accounts with individual business type must update to company with sole_proprietorship structure to stay compliant when we start rolling out this new requirement:

// Update existing account
curl -X POST https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts/acct_123 \
  -u sk_test_123: \
  -d "business_type=company" \
  -d "company[structure]=sole_proprietorship" \
  -d "company[tax_id]=12345678"  // KvK number

// Successful response
{
  "id": "acct_123",
  "business_type": "company",
  "company": {
    "structure": "sole_proprietorship",
    "tax_id": "12345678"
  },
  "requirements": {
    "past_due": [],  // business_type requirement resolved
    "errors": []
  }
}

For new account creation

Attempting to create a Netherlands account with an individual business type will return the unsupported_business_type error.

// This will fail
curl -X POST https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts \
  -u sk_test_123: \
  -d "country=NL" \
  -d "type=custom" \
  -d "business_type=individual"

// Response
{
  "id": "acct_123",
  "business_type": "individual",
  "country": "NL",
  "requirements": {
    "past_due": ["business_type"],
    "errors": [{
      "requirement": "business_type",
      "code": "unsupported_business_type",
      "reason": "Business type isn't supported in merchant country. 'individual' isn't a supported business type in country NL."
    }]
  }


// Correct approach
curl -X POST https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts \
  -u sk_test_123: \
  -d "country=NL" \
  -d "type=custom" \
  -d "business_type=company" \
  -d "company[structure]=sole_proprietorship"

Supported business structures for NL

For Netherlands accounts, use these business type and structure combinations:

Impact on capabilities

Accounts with unsupported_business_type error will have their capabilities restricted until the business type is updated:

{
  "capabilities": {
    "card_payments": "inactive",
    "transfers": "inactive"
  },
  "requirements": {
    "disabled_reason": "requirements.past_due",
    "past_due": ["business_type"]
  }
}

Accounts have not provided their KvK registration will have their card_payments capability restricted until this information is provided:

{
  "capabilities": {
    "card_payments": "inactive"
  },
  "requirements": {
    "disabled_reason": "requirements.past_due",
    "past_due": ["company.tax_id"]
  }
}

Migration timeline

• Now: New error code unsupported_business_type is active
• When Future requirements rollout: Existing accounts must start remediation
• September 30, 2026: All NL accounts must be compliant

Implementation Checklist

For platforms with NL connected accounts:

1. Audit existing accounts

// Find affected accounts
const accounts = await stripe.accounts.list({
  limit: 100,
  // Filter for NL accounts in your system
});

const affected = accounts.data.filter(a =>
  a.country === 'NL' &&
  a.business_type === 'individual'
);

1. Update account creation flows

   • Remove individual option for NL accounts
   • Default to company with sole_proprietorship
   • Collect KvK number (company.tax_id)

2. Handle the new error code

if (account.requirements.errors.some(e =>
  e.code === 'unsupported_business_type')) {
  // Prompt user to update business type
  // Guide them to select appropriate structure
  // Collect KvK number
}

1. Communicate with affected connected accounts

   • Explain why the change is needed
   • Provide guidance on selecting correct business structure
   • Help them locate their KvK number

Testing

Test your implementation with these scenarios:

// Test updating to valid business type
const updated = await stripe.accounts.update('acct_test_123', {
  business_type: 'company',
  company: {
    structure: 'sole_proprietorship',
    tax_id: '12345678'  // Test KvK
  }
});

Additional considerations

Individual freelancers

In the Netherlands, even individual freelancers must register as a business (eenmanszaak) and obtain a KvK number. They should select company → sole_proprietorship.

How to find the KvK number for connected accounts

The KvK number is on their Chamber of Commerce registration certificate (uittreksel Kamer van Koophandel).

#### Backward compatibility In older API versions, unsupported_business_type appears as invalid_value_other with a detailed_code field containing the specific error.