Managing Entities
Column will work with you to define entity requirements based on your use case and program. Requirements vary with the financial products you offer and to what type of customers you offer these products and determine which fields on the entity object are mandatory vs optional.
Consumer products
We define consumer products as financial products offered to individuals for personal or household purposes, not tied to running a business, like personal bank accounts or personal loans. For a consumer product, Column requires creation of person entities where a person is the primary owner of a bank account or loan. We commonly require information like legal name, social security number, passport, date of birth, and an address.
Create a person entity
curl 'https://api.column.com/entities/person' \
-XPOST \
-u :<YOUR API KEY> \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"first_name": "Oliver",
"last_name": "Hockey",
"middle_name": "Smith",
"ssn": "565438976",
"date_of_birth": "1985-08-04",
"email": "oliver@column.com",
"pep_status": "not_checked",
"address": {
"line_1": "101 Market St",
"line_2": "Suite 1913",
"city": "San Francisco",
"state": "CA",
"postal_code": "94105",
"country_code": "USA"
}
}'Business products
We define business products as financial products offered to businesses for commercial or organizational purposes, like business bank accounts or corporate cards. Column requires creation of business entities where a business is the primary owner of a bank account or loan (with associated person details where applicable).
Create a business entity
You must first create a business entity with information on the business itself like business name, EIN or registration ID, and address.
curl 'https://api.column.com/entities/business' \
-XPOST \
-u :<YOUR API KEY> \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"business_name": "Yellen Cocktails LLC",
"ein": "123456789",
"legal_type": "llc",
"website": "https://yellencocktails.com",
"description": "Premium craft cocktail lounge and distillery",
"industry": "Food & Beverage",
"state_of_incorporation": "CA",
"year_of_incorporation": "2019",
"countries_of_operation": ["US"],
"registration_id": {
"number": "123456789",
"country_code": "US"
},
"address": {
"line_1": "555 California Street",
"line_2": "Suite 200",
"city": "San Francisco",
"state": "CA",
"postal_code": "94104",
"country_code": "US"
},
"is_root": false
}'Create a person entity
From there, you will create a person entity for each associated person with required information for that person.
curl 'https://api.column.com/entities/person' \
-XPOST \
-u :<YOUR API KEY> \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"first_name": "Oliver",
"last_name": "Hockey",
"middle_name": "Smith",
"ssn": "565438976",
"date_of_birth": "1985-08-04",
"email": "oliver@column.com",
"pep_status": "not_checked",
"address": {
"line_1": "101 Market St",
"line_2": "Suite 1913",
"city": "San Francisco",
"state": "CA",
"postal_code": "94105",
"country_code": "USA"
}
}'Linked associated person
Once you’ve created a business entity and one or more person entities, you can link person entities to a business entity and specify the specific role a person has in the business (control person, beneficial owner, and/or account owner).
curl 'https://api.column.com/entities/enti_2dk2oXqPcB5Xb5wFpnrg50F7BeD/associated-persons' \
-XPOST \
-u :<YOUR API KEY> \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"person_entity_id": "enti_2Q1ctiJm1NypVqCt8UBC8e4xTfH",
"roles": ["control_person", "beneficial_owner"],
"ownership_percentage": 75,
"title_in_business": "CEO and Founder"
}'Consumer & commercial products
If you offer financial products to both persons and businesses, you only need to create one person entity. For example, a person entity may own a personal bank account and also be a beneficial owner of a business that owns a business bank account.
Verify an entity's compliance requirements
Column will work directly with you to define compliance requirements for your program. Your Column team will configure these requirements for your platform. See Documentary Evidence for more information. Once configured, you can use our entity compliance endpoint to verify that you have passed Column all required information.
curl 'https://api.column.com/entities/enti_2dk2oXqPcB5Xb5wFpnrg50F7BeD/compliance' \
-u :<YOUR API KEY>Response:
{
"entity_id": "enti_2zEuekS3fkfaGe6YKPmx3FfxuZk",
"updated_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z",
"fields": {
"first_name": "complete",
"last_name": "complete",
"ssn": "missing",
"address.line_1": "complete",
"address.city": "complete",
"evidence.proof_of_address": "missing",
"associated_persons.control_person": "complete"
}
}Within the API response, it is evident which of the required fields have been uploaded to Column and which are missing. Entities must have all required fields uploaded to be in full compliance with Column’s policies and are subject to restrictions if not provided.