Requirements for Businesses

Business customers must complete verification of the nature of the business, business registration, and associated persons. Fern oversees the entire verification process on your behalf, eliminating the need for you to manage it directly.

Information collected

• Business details
  • Legal business name
  • DBA name (if applicable)
  • Business type
  • Business industry
  • Whether the business is a DAO
  • Business registered address
  • Business operating address
    • Can be different from registered address
  • Country of business registration
  • Business registration number
  • Business formation date
  • Website
  • Business description
  • Additional links
    • Social media profiles
• Source of funds
  • Source of funds
    • In some cases, depending on the nature of the business, we require proof of source of funds
  • Description of source of funds
  • Compliance screening procedures
    • Required if transmitting funds on behalf of others
• Account usage
  • Expected monthly transaction volume in USD
  • Account purpose
    • If OTHER is selected, free text description of the account purpose is required
  • Estimated annual revenue
• Risk information
  • Operation in prohibited countries
  • High-risk activities & explanation of these activities
• Beneficial owner information
  • Refer to Individual requirements
  • Email address
  • Percentage ownership
  • Date relationship with the business began
• Controller information
  • Refer to Individual requirements
  • Email address
  • Title
  • Date relationship with the business began
• Business documents
  • Formation documents
  • Ownership documents
  • Business proof of physical address

Typical time to approval: 4-7 business days

If additional documents or information are needed (e.g., proof of business activities), our compliance team will contact your end-customer directly to complete the verification process.

Specific document requirements

The Fern customer verification links will make it clear what information is required from the customer. Customers will be required to provide documents that meet these criteria:

File Size Requirements

• File size: Greater than 10KB and less than 5MB
• Total API request size: Maximum 100MB
• Image resolution: Minimum 200x200 pixels

Additional Information Requests (RFI)

If Fern’s compliance team needs additional information during the verification process, the customer status will change to NEEDS_ADDITIONAL_INFORMATION, and the customer will be contacted directly via email.

Common RFI scenarios for businesses:

• Unclear formation or ownership documents
• Missing beneficial owner verification
• Proof of business activities required
• Enhanced due diligence documentation
• Updated financial information

Customers can submit additional documents through the same verificationLink provided in the initial response.