On November 27th, 2024, we'll introduce a change to how providers' bank account numbers are collected in your marketplace. Review your Stripe Connect Onboarding settings to make sure the transition will be smooth on your marketplace.
What will change
Currently, users enter their bank account number directly in your marketplace's user interface, either during listing creation or in their payout settings.
Starting from November 27th, 2024, users will add their bank account number in Stripe's Connect Onboarding interface. This is the same interface that users already use to verify their identity and share required details about their business with Stripe.
This change only affects users who haven't connected a bank account before the update. There will be no change for users who have added their bank accounts earlier
Review your bank account collection settings
The update to bank account number collection will be automatic in your Sharetribe marketplace.
You only have to check that you've enabled the correct settings in your Stripe Dashboard to guarantee that bank account collection will work seamlessly in your Sharetribe marketplace after the update. These settings are a step in our default Stripe setup instructions but we recommend double-checking them nonetheless.
Here's how:
Go to Settings > Connect > Payouts in your Stripe Dashboard.
Check that "Require at least one bank account?" is set to "Yes". This is the first setting on the page.
Check that "Collect external account information for Custom accounts" is toggled on. You'll find this setting at the bottom of the page.
Change the settings, if needed. You can leave other settings as-is.
This is how your external account payout settings should look like:
What happens if these settings are not enabled
If you don't have the setting "Collect external account information" enabled in your Stripe settings, users will not be able to add their bank account details to accounts following the update. As a result, payouts to these users will fail.
Why this change
This update has many benefits:
Stripe is a well-known, secure payment provider. Users are likely to be familiar with it and feel more comfortable sharing their bank account number in Stripe Connect Onboarding than directly on your platform. This is a great way to borrow Stripe’s reliability, especially if your marketplace is still in its early days and still building user trust.
Stripe takes care of validating the bank account number format.
A user's country of residence and bank account country no longer need to be the same. Users will be able to add a bank account that's in different country than their address.