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Closing accounts

A Swan account might need to be closed for several reasons. You, your account holders and account legal representatives, Swan, and third parties can all request an account be closed.

You only pay for accounts with the status Opened. As soon as an account enters the closure process, the status changes to Closing and you're no longer charged for the account.

Account statuses

Refer to the account statuses section for an overview of what happens when an account is Closing or Closed.

Account closure processes​

The account closure process depends on who closes the account.

Partner (you)​

You can request to close accounts for your users if specific conditions are met:

  1. Your end user hasn't made payments to you for two consecutive months.
  2. Your end user's account is recognized as a duplicate.
  3. Your end user is no longer using your product.
  4. Your end user doesn't respond to your communication.

The method you'll use to request to close the account depends on the account's payment level, which is either Limited or Unlimited. Find the payment level by going to your Dashboard > Data > Accounts, then clicking the account you're requesting to close.

Follow the guide relevant to your situation:

When you request account closure, the reason code is ComplianceReason.

An account's legal representative can request to close an account. You need to support them in this process by either sending them a non-expiring closure link or closing the account with the API. Links don't expire.

Follow the guide relevant to your situation:

Please note that only Swan can act on Suspended accounts. Legal representatives can't close accounts with the status Suspended.

When the legal representative requests account closure, the reason code is PartnerReason.

Account holder​

An account holder or legal representative can request to close an account by contacting Swan Support directly. Send your users the Swan Support Center article explaining the process to initiate account closure.

When they contact Swan Support to request account closure, the reason code is ComplianceReason.

Swan​

Swan reserves the right to close accounts, and might decide to close an account for the following reasons:

  1. The account holder's identity document looks fake, stolen, or altered; the device used to complete an identification is altered; or the applicant seems to have performed their identification against their will.
  2. Suspicion of other fraudulent activity or activities that aren't compliant with Swan's policies.
  3. The onboarding, identification, or Know Your Customer (KYC) process wasn't completed.
  4. The Partner (you) is no longer working with Swan.

When closing accounts, Swan is required by law to provide a two-month notice period. More specifically, Swan waits 60 days after notifying the account holder to change the account status to Closing. This provides the account holder with enough time to open an account at another financial institution before losing access to their Swan account.

Swan can close accounts immediately if the closure is due to fraud or a third-party request. When Swan closes an account, the reason code is ComplianceReason.

Third party​

Swan can receive requests from third parties to close accounts. For example, liquidators can request account closure if the account holder's company is being liquidated. Additionally, notaries can request account closure in the case of the account holder's death.

Before accepting requests from third parties, Swan performs the following actions:

  1. Swan confirms the request is legitimate. If the request is fraudulent, Swan doesn't comply.
  2. Swan checks the account balance.
    • Zero balance: No action required.
    • Positive balance: Swan requests bank details from the third party, then transfers the funds.
    • Negative balance: Swan requests the third party transfer funds so the balance reaches zero.

When the account balance reaches zero, Swan changes the account status to Closed immediately for legitimate third-party requests. The reason code for this account closure is ComplianceReason.

Email communications​

Swan notifies your end users about account closure by email according to your communication preferences: you (partner) only, you and the end user, or end user only. Refer to the tab for your communication preferences.

communication preferences

Swan is dedicated to respecting your communication preferences. However, notifying end users about account closure is a legal requirement and can't be removed from the user flow.

Please consider the following timelines in your implementation. Other than immediate closure, you're notified first and can therefore notify your users about their account before the closure date.

TimelineOverview
Immediate closure
2 emails
  1. Immediately: Notification of account closure sent to the end user, with you in copy.
  2. Immediately: Separate notification of account closure sent to you.
Closure within 60 days
3 emails
  1. Immediately: Notification of the account closure date sent to you only.
  2. On closure date: Notification of account closure sent to you.
  3. On closure date: Separate notification of account closure sent to the end user, with you in copy.
Closure in 60 days or more
4 emails
  1. Immediately: Notification of the account closure date sent to you only.
  2. A month before closure date: Reminder of account closure sent to you only.
  3. On closure date: Notification of account closure sent to you.
  4. On closure date: Separate notification of account closure sent to the end user, with you in copy.

Guides​