Merchant onboarding for a checkout platform: KYB steps and timing

A checkout platform onboards each merchant in two compliance steps: the merchant accepts terms of service, then passes KYB (Know Your Business) with its company profile, documents, and beneficial owners. On BlindPay, KYB Standard takes 3 hours to 1 business day. Only after approval does the merchant get a wallet, an API key, and live checkout sessions.

This guide covers the platform side of onboarding, as of October 2026. For what KYB checks in general, read what is KYB. For how a checkout fits together end to end, start with what is a global payments checkout.

Key takeaways

• Every merchant that receives funds through your checkout is its own BlindPay business customer, with its own KYB case.
• BlindPay KYB Standard is a manual review that takes 3 hours to 1 business day. KYC Standard for individuals is automated, about 60 seconds.
• The KYB case needs company details, a NAICS industry code from a fixed list, three business documents, and every beneficial owner with ID and proof of address.
• Terms of service come first: BlindPay returns a link, and the tos_id comes back on your redirect URL.
• Holds can follow approval too. First withdrawals, unusual patterns, and sanctions matches can send a transaction to review for up to 30 days.

Who needs KYB on a checkout platform?

Every business that receives money through your checkout needs KYB. If you run a checkout for your own store only, that is one business customer. If you run a platform, it is one per merchant.

The reason is simple. Funds land in a balance that belongs to the merchant, and regulated providers must know who owns that balance. A platform that pools every merchant's money under its own name takes on that obligation itself, which is a much heavier compliance program. Onboarding each merchant as its own customer keeps the ownership clear from the first payment.

Who this is for: product and compliance leads building a multi-merchant checkout, a marketplace, or a payments product for SMBs. Confirm your own licensing and onboarding duties with your compliance counsel.

What are the onboarding steps, in order?

Five steps take a merchant from sign-up to its first live checkout session.

1. Sign-up. Business name and work email. Create the merchant in your own database now, so every later step has an id to attach to.
2. Terms of service. Call POST /v1/e/instances/{instance_id}/tos, send the merchant's browser to the returned URL, and read the tos_id from the redirect. A tos_id belongs to one customer only.
3. KYB submission. Create the business customer with the tos_id, the business profile, the documents, and the owners. See the customers docs for every field.
4. Review. Show a verifying state. Watch for customer status changes and answer any request for information quickly, since an open request blocks the decision.
5. Activation. On approval, create the merchant's wallet and its API key, and turn on checkout sessions and withdrawals.

The order matters. Put the terms step before the long form, so a merchant who will not accept the terms leaves before typing twenty fields.

What does the KYB case collect?

KYB covers the business, its documents, and the people who own or control it. Collect it all in one form and validate it before you submit.

Document links must be publicly fetchable. A dead link or a data: URI fails the submission, so upload files first and pass the resulting links. The KYB documents guide lists what each document type should show.

How long does each review take?

KYB Standard takes 3 hours to 1 business day on BlindPay, because a person reviews it. Individual checks are faster.

The cut-off times reference lists the onboarding timelines:

• KYC Standard: about 60 seconds, automated.
• KYC Enhanced: 3 hours to 1 business day, manual.
• KYB Standard: 3 hours to 1 business day, manual.

Customers from high-risk countries always go to Enhanced review. Some business activities are allowed only with disclosure and enhanced review, and others are prohibited outright. Read the prohibited activities list before you target a vertical, not after merchants from it sign up.

For comparison, card platforms also hold new merchants for a while. Stripe's payouts docs say the first payout is typically scheduled 7 to 14 days after the first successful live payment, depending on industry, country, and risk. Every provider prices risk into the first days of a new merchant. The difference is where the wait sits.

What should the merchant see while KYB runs?

A clear verifying screen, a reason to stay, and a message when the decision lands.

• Say what happens next and how long it usually takes, in plain words: "We are verifying your business. This usually takes a few hours and at most one business day."
• Give them something to do. A test mode checkout, a demo store, or the API docs keep the integration moving while compliance works.
• Email on approval, rejection, or a request for information. Nobody should refresh a dashboard for a day.
• Give a rejected merchant its own screen. Do not show a generic error.

Automated KYC/KYB vs. manual onboarding covers which parts of this you can automate and which stay with a reviewer.

What happens after a merchant is approved?

Approval opens the account, but transactions still get screened. Plan for holds as part of normal operations.

BlindPay can hold a payin or payout for review after approval. Common triggers include first-time withdrawals, unusual activity patterns, amounts that are large for the merchant's history, sanctions or watchlist matches, and open requests for information. A hold can take up to 30 days to resolve, and a timeout without a decision fails the transaction. Every USD payout over ACH, wire, RTP, or SWIFT goes through review.

Sanctions screening applies to owners as well as payments. Lists such as the OFAC SDN list change often, and payment messages carry more originator and beneficiary data since the FATF Recommendation 16 update of June 2025. Show held payments as "under review" in the merchant dashboard, not as failed.

How does BlindPay handle merchant onboarding?

BlindPay runs the compliance steps inside the same API that moves the money. Your platform owns the sign-up screens, and BlindPay owns the checks.

• Terms of service through a hosted link, with the tos_id returned to your redirect URL.
• KYB and KYC in the customer object, with KYB Standard reviewed in 3 hours to 1 business day and KYC Standard automated in about 60 seconds.
• Status updates on the customer, so your dashboard can show verifying, approved, or a request for information without polling a separate vendor.
• Screening in the payment flow, including sanctions checks and risk review, with holds surfaced as an on_hold status.
• Activation through managed wallets and payin quotes once the merchant is approved, so the merchant's first checkout session uses the same customer record.

That keeps one record per merchant from sign-up to first withdrawal. For the checks behind each step, see KYC vs KYB vs KYT.

Methodology and sources

BlindPay facts come from the customers, terms of service, cut-off times, KYC requirements, and prohibited activities docs, read in October 2026. External sources: Stripe payouts docs, the OFAC SDN list, and the FATF Recommendation 16 update. Requirements vary by jurisdiction and business type. This is not legal advice.

What to do next

Map your sign-up form to the KYB table above and cut any field you collect twice. Then create a development instance, run one merchant through terms and KYB, and time how long your own screens take before the review even starts.