Glossary of Straddle Terms

Account: Prior to using the API, businesses who wish to use the Straddle API must register for a Straddle account. An account indicates a legal, contractual relationship between a legal entity and Straddle.
- Account Access Levels
  - Standard. A standard account, or User, is typically a business, fintech, e-commerce retailer, or otherwise stand-alone business entity that may have direct onboarding contact with Straddle, is able to log into the Straddle Console, and can receive support directly from the Straddle team.
    Standard accounts can either be created directly with Straddle or via an Embed Platform
  - Managed. Straddle is almost completely invisible to this account holder and typically has no direct contact with them. Managed accounts require the most integration effort and are suitable for platforms who want to control the entire user experience. Managed accounts do not have access to the Straddle Console. This account type should only be used by sophisticated platforms whom are capable of supporting the entire user experience.
Platform. A platform is typically a vertical-specific SaaS, two-sided marketplace, or PSP/PayFac utilizing Straddle "Embed" to extend Straddle services to the platform's users.
- If a Platform also wants to use the Straddle services to send or receive money, they should register a separate account
- Unlike Accounts, Platforms include capabilities to create new Straddle accounts on for other businesses and interact with the API on their behalf.
User: A common term used in this documentation to reference a platform or business (account) interacting with the Straddle ecosystem and API
Onboarding: Onboarding is the process Straddle uses to understand a business’s profile before allowing them to move money on our platform. This profile includes information like a description of the company, the business model, and their transaction volume. Through onboarding, we can understand and prevent unnecessary financial risk for Straddle and those transacting on our platform.
Customer: In the context of the Straddle payments ecosystem, a customer refers to an individual or business involved in a payment transaction with a Straddle Account (an end-customer). Straddle's identity engine process takes place at the customer level, ensuring that the end-customer identity is confirmed before they can pay or get paid.
Paykeys: An evolution of traditional payment tokenization, Paykeys create a secure link between a user's verified identity and their chosen payment method. Paykeys offer:
- The first identity-linked payment method since the debit card
- Built-in compliance and fraud detection, by connecting verified customer identities to open banking data via LSTM machine learning models
- Reusability for subscriptions, recurring invoice payments, and — one day — portability
Payment: A payment is a request from a User to move money out of (a charge) or into (a payout) a Customer’s bank account via a Paykey
- Charges are used to debit or pull money from a customer to an account
  - Charges are typically associated with the sale of goods or services. Examples include:
    Service fee for a monthly software subscription
    Mortgage or other loan repayment
    Purchase of goods from a website
    Membership dues for a health club or gym
  - Behind the scenes, charges are:
    ACH debit entries
  - All charges requested using a Paykey created via open-banking tokens will have the available balance confirmed by Straddle prior to origination
- Payouts are used to send or push money from an account to a customer
  - Payouts have varied use cases depending on the business needs of an account. Such as:
    A direct deposit to an employee for payroll
    Funding a borrower's account for a loan
    Disbursing funds to a vendor
    Issuing a refund
  - Behind the scenes, payouts can be:
    ACH credit entries
    RTP
    FedNow
    Push-to-card
Funding Activity: details the transactions that move funds between Straddle and the Account’s external bank accounts. It is a crucial aspect of the financial services provided by Straddle, ensuring that users have clear visibility and control over their financial operations.
- Funding Events: A "Funding Event" is a specific instance within the Funding Activity that results in a change in the user’s external account balance. These events are automatically tracked and processed by Straddle for a seamless money movement experience. Each event is logged with detailed information, allowing for transparency and ease of reconciliation.
  - Types of Funding Events:
    
    Deposits: Money sent from Straddle to account’s external bank account
    Payment Deposit: Funds received for successful “charge” activity (SETTLEMENT)
    Payout Reversal: Funds received due to an attempted customer payout failing
    
    Withdrawals: Money pulled from account’s external bank account by Straddle
    Payout Withdrawal: Funds debited from the user’s external bank account for payouts initiated by the merchant, typically for transactions such as customer refunds or disbursements.
    Payment Reversal: Funds pulled back after a deposit event occurs due to late “returns” or disputes (chargebacks)
Bridge: A comprehensive suite of account connectivity endpoints that facilitates secure connections between users and their financial accounts. Bridge offers:
- A drop-in open banking widget that connects to 90% of US bank accounts with a simple code snippet.
- Support for existing third-party tokens from providers like Plaid, MX, Flinks, and Finicity (Mastercard).
- API-based bank account verification for "out of network" banks, eliminating the need for onerous micro-deposits.
Embed: Embed is a Straddle product that enables deeply integrated payment services for software platforms, marketplaces, and other even other PSP/PayFacs. Embed simplifies the process of integrating A2A payments and managing complex money movement scenarios within an app or service. It is designed to support various bank payments use cases and offers a complete suite of tools to accept payments, onboard business users, and streamline risk and operations.
Weave: An internal Straddle salesforce application used to automate account onboarding and due diligence. Part of the Embed product stack