Financial Connections Fresh

Access your users' bank account data with their consent. Collect verified bank account information and retrieve balances, transactions, and ownership data.

How it works

1. Your user initiates the bank account linking flow on your client
2. Your server creates a Financial Connections Session
3. You return the session's client_secret to the client
4. The Stripe authentication UI launches via collectFinancialConnectionsAccounts
5. The user consents to data sharing and links their bank account
6. Stripe attaches FinancialConnectionsAccount objects to the session
7. You retrieve account data from your server

Authentication flow steps

Step	Description
Give consent	User agrees to share requested data
Select institution	User selects from 5,000+ supported banks
Log into bank	User authenticates via OAuth or non-OAuth flow
Select accounts	User selects which accounts to link
Success	Authentication complete

Supports web, iOS, Android, and mobile web views.

Create a Financial Connections Session

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/financial_connections/sessions \
  -u "sk_test_YOUR_KEY:" \
  -d "account_holder[type]=customer" \
  -d "account_holder[customer]={{CUSTOMER_ID}}" \
  -d "permissions[]=payment_method" \
  -d "permissions[]=balances"

Node.js:

const stripe = require('stripe')('sk_test_YOUR_KEY');

const session = await stripe.financialConnections.sessions.create({
  account_holder: {
    type: 'customer',
    customer: 'cus_CUSTOMER_ID',
  },
  permissions: ['payment_method', 'balances'],
});

// Return session.client_secret to the frontend

Launch the authentication flow (client-side)

const stripe = Stripe('pk_test_YOUR_PUBLISHABLE_KEY');

const { financialConnectionsSession, error } = await stripe.collectFinancialConnectionsAccounts({
  clientSecret: session.client_secret,
});

if (error) {
  console.error(error.message);
} else {
  const accounts = financialConnectionsSession.accounts;
  // accounts is an array of linked FinancialConnectionsAccount objects
}

Return user optimization

For return users who have previously linked accounts, create a Customer with their email before launching the flow. Stripe's Link integration allows users to reuse saved bank accounts across Stripe businesses in fewer steps:

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/customers \
  -u "sk_test_YOUR_KEY:" \
  -d email={{CUSTOMER_EMAIL}}

Pass the customer ID in the account_holder when creating the session.

Data permissions

Permission	Data available	Use cases
payment_method	Tokenized account and routing number	ACH payments, payouts
ownership	Account owner names and mailing addresses	Fraud prevention, KYC
balances	Current and available balance	Lending, financial management
transactions	Pending and posted transactions	PFM apps, lending underwriting

Request only the permissions you need. Users can see which data types you've requested and must explicitly consent to each.

After collecting an account you always receive (without special permissions):

• Last four digits of account number
• Account category (checking, savings)
• Account nickname (if available)

Account numbers are tokenized by default. Full account numbers for off-Stripe ACH processing are available only to businesses that meet Stripe's risk and eligibility criteria.

Retrieve account data

After the authentication flow, retrieve data from your server:

# List accounts attached to a session
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/financial_connections/sessions/{{SESSION_ID}} \
  -u "sk_test_YOUR_KEY:" \
  -d "expand[]=accounts"

# Retrieve balances for a specific account
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/financial_connections/accounts/{{ACCOUNT_ID}}/refresh \
  -u "sk_test_YOUR_KEY:" \
  -d "features[]=balances"

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/financial_connections/accounts/{{ACCOUNT_ID}} \
  -u "sk_test_YOUR_KEY:" \
  -d "expand[]=balance"

OAuth vs non-OAuth authentication

Stripe defaults to OAuth (bank-hosted) authentication when available:

Method	Description
OAuth	User goes to bank's site/app, grants permission, bank redirects back. No credentials shared with Stripe.
Non-OAuth	User provides credentials directly to Stripe or a trusted partner. Used when OAuth is unavailable at the institution.

Your integration doesn't need to treat OAuth and non-OAuth accounts differently.

FinancialConnectionsAccount object

Field	Description
id	Account ID (fca_...)
category	cash, investment, credit, other
subcategory	checking, savings, mortgage, credit_card, etc.
status	active, inactive, disconnected
balance	Current and available balance (if balances permission granted)
ownership	Owner names and addresses (if ownership permission granted)
last4	Last 4 digits of account number
institution_name	Name of the financial institution

Payments integration

For ACH payments, Financial Connections is the recommended way to collect and verify bank account details. Integrate with Payment Intents or Setup Intents:

const paymentMethod = await stripe.paymentMethods.create({
  type: 'us_bank_account',
  us_bank_account: {
    financial_connections_account: 'fca_ACCOUNT_ID',
  },
});

Or use the payment_method token returned from the authentication flow directly in your PaymentIntent.

Microdeposits fallback

For payments integrations, configure microdeposit fallback for users who can't complete instant verification:

const setupIntent = await stripe.setupIntents.create({
  payment_method_types: ['us_bank_account'],
  payment_method_options: {
    us_bank_account: {
      financial_connections: {
        permissions: ['payment_method'],
      },
      verification_method: 'microdeposits', // fallback
    },
  },
});