Overview - Dwolla Developer Portal

Open Banking

This section dives into the process of leveraging Dwolla’s Exchange Sessions API for Instant Account Verification (IAV) within your application. Dwolla’s Exchange Sessions API enables you to leverage open banking providers to perform bank account verification in real-time, streamlining your onboarding process and improving user experience. An Exchange Session represents a generated IAV session that is established between Dwolla and integrated open banking service providers for the purposes of user bank account verification.

Instant Account Verification Flow

Here’s a breakdown of the steps:Step 1: Initiate Exchange Session

Use the create an exchange session endpoint of the Dwolla API to initiate an Exchange Session for an External Party.
Specify the desired open banking provider (e.g., MX) within the request body.

Step 2: Retrieve Exchange Session and Complete IAV Flow

Make an API call to retrieve an exchange session. Upon success, Dwolla will return an external-provider-session URL where your application will redirect the user to a secure login.
The user logs in to their bank account and grants your application permission to access specific financial data for account verification.
Implement proper error handling mechanisms to address potential issues during the verification process.

Step 3: Data Retrieval and Exchange Creation

Upon successful authorization, you’ll obtain specific user and selected account details from the open banking provider which will be used to create an exchange.
Dwolla retrieves relevant account data from the user’s bank through the secure open banking provider API connection established during the Exchange Session.

Step 4: Funding Source Creation and Account Verification

Using the create a funding source endpoint, you’ll create a funding source by passing in the exchange resource from the previous step.
Dwolla returns a 201 response and triggers a external_party.funding_source:created webhook indicating the funding source verification and creation is complete.

Exchange Sessions resource

Parameter	Description
_links	A _links JSON object containing a collection of links to related resources including: exchange session, exchange-partner, and external-provider-session. The unique URL called “external-provider-session” is specifically designed to be embedded within your application, facilitating the Instant Account Verification flow.
created	ISO 8601 timestamp of when the exchange-partner resource was created.

{
    "created": "2024-03-25T17:13:38.430Z",
    "_links": {
        "self": {
            "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/exchange-sessions/9b7fb629-0fad-44f4-8c5e-44c25a0bfa8e",
            "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json",
            "resource-type": "exchange-sessions"
        },
        "exchange-partner": {
            "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/exchange-partners/bca8d065-49a5-475b-a6b4-509bc8504d22",
            "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json",
            "resource-type": "exchange-partner"
        },
        "external-provider-session": {
            "href": "https://int-widgets.moneydesktop.com/md/connect/lAfkc7m897s3t1ks9mmwyj4ry7Zq0xql4grzAg1kz77x7c9jrwls1t22w6xt8d2lsxx9zpqv30js3wswfdwcrpAsqgbAfkqwpksp7c2chsx167xy90Asfc67dkj9y48y8p142xw3yp4x5l9t9gkk6m3yk5vwsvyq2qq7w9trszxwdl14lmkg7l6949bn5n41chdkbnxycy40n9b6fkbdwl6qt5wl107k1x8srvlkpz325p412x9tkyA5clf39109lsfrgz2lkgsvntqf7l0zzwb5hl658gdjbxwhb52krwybnbdAqfq69cdy54l05jkvfwyf01q89x48jtgtx290lzjdfcty1lwb8d648wns/eyJ1aV9tZXNzYWdlX3ZlcnNpb24iOjQsInVpX21lc3NhZ2Vfd2Vidmlld191cmxfc2NoZW1lIjoibXgiLCJtb2RlIjoidmVyaWZpY2F0aW9uIn0%3D",
            "type": "application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json",
            "resource-type": "text/html"
        }
    }
}