Closing an Account

Closing an account is done primarily when an account owner no longer wishes to use their account. Upon account closure, a paper check will be issued with the remaining balance if the fintech does not zero the account. To the extent you, as the fintech, are seeking to initiate the close because you suspect fraud or nefarious conduct, always use the lock functionality and not the close functionality. See the Locking and Unlocking Accounts guide for details.

Closing an account must be done via a PATCH call to the /account endpoint. This must be done in careful consideration of the regulatory and operational impact.

Closing an account requires additional permissions in the Treasury Prime API. Please contact support to have those enabled.

Regulatory Compliance Impact

Closing an account may have regulatory impact and should be done with care and in coordination with your banking partner. Treasury Prime, along with your bank partner, can help you create safe and lightweight compliance program. Contact Treasury Prime support for details.

Before closing any accounts, we recommend that you:

Build out an account close remediation plan in collaboration with your banking partner and Treasury Prime.
Your plan should address the following questions, though this is not an exhaustive list:
1. How to handle customer account balances with the intent to zero them before initiating a close.
2. How to handle customer communications and inquiries related to closed accounts.
3. What message will display to end users when a transaction is attempted on a closed account.

Close an Account

To close an account, make a PATCH request to the /account endpoint with the status of close_pending.

Example Request

$ curl -u $API_KEY_ID:$API_SECRET_KEY https://api.treasuryprime.com/account/acct_1029384756 \
    -X PATCH \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{"status": "close_pending"}'

Activity On a Closed Account

Many activities and API calls are blocked when an account has a status of closed or closed_pending. If there are unsettled card transactions when the account closure request is received, the account will not be closed until those transactions are settled, which may take 30+ days.

To the extent there are transactions or returns that post after the account is closed, they will be visible through current balance and available balance. Any activity that changes the balance of an end user’s account will be the responsibility of the fintech to either disburse funds or collect funds as appropriate.

Payments

Payment	Behavior When Closed
ACH	All `pending` and `processing` ACHs will be canceled when the close is initiated. Closed accounts are blocked from creating any new ACHs. Inbound ACHs will be returned.
Wire	All `pending` wires will be canceled when the close is initiated. Closed accounts are blocked from creating any new wires. Inbound wires will also be blocked on a closed account.
Book Transfers	Closed accounts are blocked from being either the `from_account_id` or `to_account_id` on a book transfer.
Check Issuing	Closed accounts are blocked from issuing new checks. Note: In the case of when a check was issued from an end-user account and the account was closed sometime later, a `stop_payment` will be put on all outstanding checks and the funds will return to the end-user account. As part of the process, the receiving bank will need to send funds back to the customer/end user to bring the account to a $0 balance prior to closing the account. Please confirm that this flow is enabled at your institution.
Check Deposit	Closed accounts are blocked from depositing checks.

Cards

When an account is closed cards will update based on their status at the time of the close.

Card Status Prior to Close	Behavior When Closed
`active`	Will be updated to a `terminated` status.
`unactivated`	Will be updated to a `terminated` status.
`suspended`	No change.
`terminated`	No change.

Closed Errors

When an API call is blocked due to a closed account a 403 - Forbidden response will be returned with an error message detailing the cause.

{"error": "The account is closed."}

Closed Account Check Issuance

⚠️
Please reach out to your Bank partner to discuss enabling this feature.

When a ledger account with a positive balance is closed, Treasury Prime issues checks for the remaining balance through the following process:

The fintech initiates account closure by updating the account status to close_pending through Treasury Prime's API
Treasury Prime verifies if there are any pending transactions. If pending transactions exist, the account remains in close_pending status for 30 days.
After verifying no pending transactions (or after the 30-day period), Treasury Prime checks the account balance.
For accounts with positive balances, Treasury Prime issues checks for the remaining amounts. These checks include a memo stating "release of funds" and a message indicating "releasing funds to customer for account closure".
After issuing the check, Treasury Prime transfers funds from the FBO account to the bank's Closed Account Check Settlement Account (CACSA).
The account balance is updated to zero, and the status changes from close_pending to closed.

If a check is not cashed within 180 days, it's marked as expired. The bank is then responsible for escheating these funds to the state as required by unclaimed property laws.