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Creating an Account

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New process

This guide provides instructions for using Create Account when the integrated ID verification process is the Identity Verification Service (IVS), which replaced the previous integration solution in June 2026.

If you are using Galileo's Legacy CIP process, refer to the Creating an Account with Legacy CIP guide.

This guide describes the procedure for creating a new customer account using the Create Account endpoint. With these endpoints you can optionally issue a card and deposit funds into the account at the same time that you create the new account.

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Note

When creating an account for a new customer you must perform Customer ID Verification. You should also read the About Accounts guide to familiarize yourself with Galileo's account structure and conventions.

Follow this procedure to:

  • Onboard a new customer for a physical card.
  • Onboard a new customer for a virtual card.
  • Create a secondary account for a different customer than the primary account holder, such as a spouse or child.

Do not follow this procedure to:

  • Add a secondary account to an existing customer; instead, see the Adding an Account guide.
  • Add an overdraft account; instead, see the Creating an Overdraft Account guide.
  • Create an instant-issue card; instead, see Setup for Instant Issue.
  • Create an account for a Digital First account, where you provide a digital version of the card for customers to use while the physical card arrives; instead, consult Digital First cards in the Choose a Card Strategy guide.

Result of calling Create Account

When Create Account has run successfully, these new items are created in the Galileo system. See New account creation in the About Accounts guide for details.

  • Customer record — Contains the customer's personal data such as address, date of birth, and contact information.
  • Account record — Contains general account information.
  • Card record (for card products) — Contains card information.

Parameters

This table contains the parameters that are typically populated for the Create Account endpoint when creating a standard account (with or without a card). See the Create Account reference for details. Parameters that are omitted from this table are strictly optional.

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Note

Parameters marked with § might be required for Mexican programs when Galileo is the BIN sponsor.

ParameterUsage
accountNoPopulate only for instant-issue cards. For all others leave blank.
idRequired for Galileo IVS integration. Primary ID number.
  • See Using the id and idType parameters for instructions.
  • If you are not using Galileo IVS integration you may still populate the ID fields for your own records.
    • idTypeRequired for Galileo IVS integration. Primary ID type.
  • Required when id is populated.
  • For Galileo IVS integration, only 2 (SSN) and 15 (ITIN) are valid.
  • See the Customer ID Types enumeration for other valid values.
    • id2§Secondary ID number.
  • With Galileo IVS integration, this field is not passed to the verification system.
  • See Specifying a card design for other uses.
  • Galileo converts all letters in this parameter to lowercase.
    • idType2Required when id2 is populated. Secondary ID type.
  • With Galileo IVS integration, this field is not passed to the verification system.
    • id3§Tertiary ID number.
  • With Galileo IVS integration, this field is not passed to the verification system.
  • Galileo converts all letters in this parameter to lowercase.
    • idType3Required when id3 is populated. Tertiary ID type.
  • With Galileo IVS integration, this field is not passed to the verification system.
    • localeCustomer localization preferences.
  • If the customer address is outside the U.S., pass a non-_US value for this parameter to disable U.S. address validation. Default: EN
    • Customer profile parametersRequired for Galileo IVS integration and for the customer record.
  • See Required data points in the IVS guide for the precise list.
  • By default the name parameters accept only letters (including international characters, when enabled), spaces, single quotes, and hyphens.
  • Enable the CNSCR provider parameter for the extended character set.
  • Consult Names on cards to see how Galileo arranges first, middle, and last names on cards.
    • primaryPhoneThe system uses this number to send IVS-related SMS messages, so this must be a mobile number. You must also populate mobilePhoneCountryCode if you pass any phone parameters. Galileo recommends that you populate mobilePhone and primaryPhone with the same number.
    mobilePhoneWhen provisioning cards to mobile wallets or sending other types of SMS messages, the system uses this number. You must also populate mobilePhoneCountryCode if you pass any phone parameters. Galileo recommends that you populate mobilePhone and primaryPhone with the same number.
    nationality§Current country where the applicant is a citizen.
    placeOfBirth§Country where the applicant was born, in ISO 3166 format.
    curp§CURP identifier.
    politicalAffiliation§Whether the applicant is a PEP.
    kycRefNo§The reference number from your KYC process to link to the customer record in the Galileo system.
    prodIdRequired. The identifier for the product the customer is signing up for.
  • You can find your product IDs in the Galileo Console.
    • loadAmountPopulate only if the product is configured to deposit funds into the account at creation time.
    loadTypeRequired when loadAmount is populated.
  • You arrange for the valid values in cooperation with Galileo.
    • externalAccountIdThis field is for your own purposes. Galileo stores but does not process this parameter; however, it can be updated with the Update Account endpoint (active accounts only), you can retrieve it using the Verify Account endpoint, and it is provided in the RDFs.

    You can use this parameter in cooperation with your card embosser to dynamically select card art, or you can input customer identifiers for your own back-end systems.
    primaryAccountPopulate only when creating a secondary account or when adding an authorizedUser.
  • See Two customers with the same primary account for information on how to use this parameter.
    • sharedBalanceRequired when primaryAccount is populated.
  • Pass 1 when creating a secondary account that will transact on the same balance as the primaryAccount.
  • If you are adding an authorizedUser to the account, passing 1 is required.
  • Pass 0 if the account balances will not be shared.
    • verifyOnlyPass 1 to verify the parameter values in your API request without creating an account or running customer ID verification.
    cipStatusLegacy CIP only.
  • See Overriding your ID verification setting for more information.
  • If you populate this parameter when EIVS is set, the endpoint will return Status code 2 — Invalid parameter(s).
    • loadFromAccountNoFor depositing funds into the new account from another account in the same program. You must also pass loadAmount and loadType when populating this parameter.
    expressMailPopulate to ship the card via accelerated delivery. Valid values come from your emboss vendor.
    shipToAddressPermanentPass 1 to make the ship-to address information permanent, meaning that you don't have to provide a new ship-to address every time you send a new card to the embosser.
    shipTo parametersPopulate for physical cards when the shipping address is different from the primary address.
    businessNameRequired when prodId is a business account.
  • See businessName parameter for the validation rules.
    • mobilePhoneCountryCodeRequired when any of the phone parameters are populated.
  • This value determines how the phone numbers are validated.
    • authorizedUserSpecifies whether the applicant is to be an authorized user for an existing account. When this parameter is 1, then primaryAccount must be populated and sharedBalance: 1.
    riskContextIdIVS only. A session-correlation token that you can pass to IVS. This token would be obtained from any front-end risk process that you run prior to calling Create Account.

    Account-creation workflow

    Consult these sections for the Create Account workflows: the first when using a standalone identity-verification system and the second when using Galileo's integrated IVS process.

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    Note

    Call the Create Account endpoint only once per customer when onboarding. Because these endpoints create a customer record, it is important that only one record be created per customer.

    Create Account without integrated ID verification

    This section describes the logical progression of the Create Account endpoint and subsequent backend processes when using a standalone customer ID validation solution, either Galileo's IVS or a third-party solution. The actual sequence of events in the Galileo system may vary.

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    Note

    The Account Events messages are sent to you according to the arrangements you have made with Galileo.

    1. Retrieve customer information from your web page or mobile app.
    2. Send the customer information to your customer ID validation provider.
    3. When customer ID validation is successful, populate the Create Account request and send.
    4. Galileo performs a number of preliminary checks. Failures return these status codes:
      • 407-04 — Load amount outside of load limits.
      • 407-12 — An application with the same ID has already been submitted.
      • 407-18 — Specified load from account number is invalid
    5. Galileo creates an account with status: W (Waiting to Be Processed). If the account cannot be created the endpoint returns status_code: 407-05.
    6. According to product settings, Galileo creates a card entry in the database and deposits funds into the account.
      • The card-related fields (card_number [PAN], expiry_date, and card_security_code [CVV] are masked or empty unless you are PCI compliant.
      • If depositing funds is not successful, these status codes are returned:
        • 407-14 — Success -- partial limit violation
        • 407-15 — Success -- delayed payment
    7. If all processes have been successful, Galileo sends two messages:
      • Endpoint response with status_code: 0 (successful)
      • Account Events webhook message CAPP: app_completed.
    8. Galileo runs an account setup process to determine whether other criteria for the account have been fulfilled, according to product settings. When all criteria are fulfilled, the Galileo system checks the XAACT product parameter for how to set the account status:
      • First character — Account active/inactive (Y/N)
      • Second character — Account status
      • Third character — Card status (if any)

    For example, if the product is a card account, and XAACT is YNX, then when account setup is completed these are the settings:

    • Account active: Y
    • Account status: N (active)
    • Card status: X (set to emboss)

    See Lifecycle of a card in Setting Up a Card Program for the next steps when the account has a card.

    Create Account using IVS integration

    This section describes the logical progression of the Create Account endpoint and subsequent backend processes when using Galileo's integrated IVS. The actual sequence of events in the Galileo system may vary.

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    Note

    The Account Events messages are sent to you according to the arrangements you have made with Galileo.

    1. Collect customer information from your web page or mobile app.
      • Galileo recommends that you make primaryPhone required on your interface for IVS integration. This number is used in combination with mobilePhoneCountryCode to send an SMS message for the customer to upload additional documentation.
    2. Populate the Create Account request and send.
    3. Galileo performs a number of preliminary checks. Failures return these status codes:
      • 407-04 — Load amount outside of load limits.
      • 407-12 — An application with the same ID has already been submitted.
      • 407-18 — Specified load from account number is invalid
    4. Galileo sends the customer information to IVS.
      • If there is a technical error while contacting IVS or receiving its response, the endpoint returns status_code: 407-05. No account is created.
    5. Galileo creates the customer account with status: W (Waiting to Be Processed).
    6. According to product settings, Galileo creates a card entry in the database and deposits funds into the account.
      • The card-related fields (card_number [PAN], expiry_date, and card_security_code [CVV] are masked or empty unless you are PCI compliant.
      • If depositing funds is not successful, these status codes are returned:
        • 407-14 — Success -- partial limit violation
        • 407-15 — Success -- delayed payment
    7. Galileo evaluates the response from IVS:
      • If it reports success (Pass) Galileo sends you two messages:
        • Endpoint response with status_code: 0 (Success).
          • The cip array contains the result (Pass) plus entity_id and customer_id, which both contain the app ID.
        • Account Events webhook message CAPP: app_completed.
      • If it reports a result that is not Pass, Galileo sends these messages:
        • Endpoint response with status_code: 407-11 (Account created, ID Validation failed).
          • Even with a non-pass result, the endpoint still creates the account and card, so the card and account-related fields such as pmt_ref_no and card_id are present in the response.
          • The cip array contains the results plus entity_id and customer_id, which both contain the app ID.
            • Fail — The customer or business is on a watch list or is unlikely to be a real person or business and therefore does not qualify for an account. The account will not be activated.
            • In Progress — Verification is still in progress. The customer or business is likely real, because there was a partial match for the personal or business information and identifier. Additional steps (such as document upload via SMS link) may be triggered asynchronously; they are not returned in the endpoint response.
            • Refer — Verification was referred for manual review. The account is created but will not activate until the review has completed.
        • Account Events webhook message BFID: failed_id.
    8. Galileo launches an account setup process, which verifies whether all criteria for account creation have been fulfilled.
      • If IVS was successful, Galileo moves the account to status: P (passed ID verification).
      • If IVS was not successful, Galileo moves the account to the status in TIDST (default: F).
    9. For accounts that pass verification, Galileo checks the XAACT product parameter for how to set the account status:
      • First character — Account active/inactive (Y/N)
      • Second character — Account status
      • Third character — Card status (if any)

    For example, if the product is a card account, and XAACT is YNX, then when account setup is completed these are the settings:

    • Account active: Y
    • Account status: N (normal, active)
    • Card status: X (set to emboss)

    See Lifecycle of a card in Setting Up a Card Program for the next steps when the account has a card.

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    Note

    The account setup process is a cron job with an interval between 5 and 30 minutes, according to your product settings. For this reason, you will receive the CAPP: app_completed event webhook message and the API response before the account is usable.

    View the new account

    Use the Get Account Cards endpoint to retrieve account status and other information. Consult Retrieving account information in the About Accounts guide for a list of endpoints and the specific account information they retrieve.

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