Introduction

The service uses a v2 authentication token and requires it to be generated with scopes as disclosure:reads, institution-users:read for getting the disclosures. 

For adding/updating disclosures, disclosures:write is required in the body. 

Financial institutions are required by law to disclose aspects of an account holder’s banking services that need their knowledge and permission. They must also maintain a record of their response (whether they accept or decline the disclosure). Allowing consumers and businesses to control important aspects of their banking relationship instills confidence and enhances their satisfaction. And beyond regulation, it’s simply good business.

An example of such a disclosure is the request for an individual’s acceptance of terms and conditions when enrolling for digital banking. Another would besigning up for electronic statements.

The Disclosures API is a set of basic services used to manage two types of disclosure records, including:

• Financial institution disclosures: Facilitates the creation, retrieval, update and deletion of the disclosures, including their nature, text, status, etc.
• User disclosure responses: Facilitates the creation, retrieval, update and deletion of an individual’s response to the disclosures, including whether they accepted or declined.

The Disclosures API enables end users to:

• Remain informed about terms and conditions, legal requirements and other aspects of their banking experience.

It enables financial institutions to:

• Gain the trust of their customers and members by clearly stating terms and conditions, etc. and complying with regulations.

It enables the developer to:

• Manage all aspects of disclosure records through one service.

While the technical documentation in the API specs section describes the endpoints (or ways to call the API with different parameters to execute different actions), the following provides a simplified list of use cases for disclosures.

Managing financial institution disclosures: Financial institution disclosure records contain the data elements necessary to present users with information (such as a terms and conditions document) and to request their response.

The Disclosures API provides the methods to manage these records, including:

• Create: Used to create new disclosure records. The name type, content, status and other elements are created to prepare a disclosure for use in an application.

• Read: Used to call up a disclosure record, most commonly when required in a workflow. The read method is invoked when a user is prompted to read and accept a disclosure.

• Update: Used when any aspect of the disclosure record must be updated (e.g., when the language of one has changed).

• Delete – Used to delete any disclosure records that are no longer needed.

Managing user disclosure responses: Maintaining the records of user responses to disclosures is both a legal requirement and a good business practice. For example, when a user accepts a disclosure to begin using online statements, your system needs that acceptance on record to ensure delivery to the customer or member, as requested. In the event of a dispute, you’ll need to produce the acceptance (or decline) record indicating the user’s response.

The Disclosures API provides the following methods to manage these records:

• Create: Used to create new user response records. The response is linked to the financial institution’s disclosure, to ensure the affected account and the date and time of the response. The response itself is recorded to indicate whether the user accepted or declined. 
• Read: Most commonly used when running a process related to a disclosure (e.g., if the user accepted a disclosure to receive online statements, then the process for creating online statements would need to check off     that response).
• Update: Used to manage changes, such as the reversal of a previous answer to a disclosure. For example, a user might opt into receiving online statements and later decide to return to paper statements. The time and     date of this change are also recorded through this method.
• Delete: Used to delete any user disclosure response records that are no longer needed.