Account Number
Column has decoupled accounts and account numbers. Historically, as banks were tied to legacy cores, their systems linked an account number to a bank account one-to-one. At Column, you can think of each account number as a pointer to a bank account. You can have one or more account numbers point to a single bank account. While we create an account number by default at account creation, our approach allows you to create account numbers at will. Column does not ledger at the account number level, only the account level. So, for example, if one account has five account numbers, you will see aggregated transaction activity and balances across all five account numbers at the account level.
Account Number Reassignment
While an account may have multiple account numbers, you cannot reassign or reuse account numbers across bank accounts. Once created, an account number remains assigned to the bank account.
Future plans
We're planning on allowing you to set restrictions on these account numbers. These may include send-only or receive-only restrictions, transaction size or total volume limits, or restrictions on name/sender/receiver. We're eager to hear about what you want - we think this is an extremely powerful concept and are excited for what you build!