Cards, Banks and Payments Risk Evaluation

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Attention: Circle is longer supporting new customers for card payments via our Payments API. For any questions, please reach out to [email protected].

What is ā€œRisk Evaluationā€?

When you create a card, a bank account or process a payment with Circle Payments APIs, the response will include a riskEvaluation section.

Risk Evaluation is the response for the check that is executed by Circle's Risk Service. The Risk Service automatically runs checks for every card, bank account and payment.

In the current version of this risk evaluation, this data element will only be present in the response in situations where the decision made by Circle's Risk Service is denied. We plan to subsequently launch additional Risk Management features which will see the expansion of the risk evaluation to decisions other than denied and also to an asynchronous mode.

When Circle's Risk Service sets the status of a card, bank account or payment to denied you should receive a response similar to below:

"riskEvaluation": {
	"decision": "denied",
	"reason": "3000"
},

As you can see, the data element contains two fields:

FieldData TypeDescription
decisionString (enumerated)The decision made by Circle's Risk Service for this risk evaluation. denied is the only possible value in the current version of the service.
reasonIntegerThe reason for the decision. The reason codes are explained in detail below.

Risk Evaluation: Denied Reason Codes

Below are the current reason code categories (or buckets) you will find in the risk evaluation responses.

Reason Code Category (Bucket)ExplanationCategory Code Range
Circle BlockedFiat Account / Payment contains criteria that Circle is unable to support at this time.
E.g. Prohibited Country.
3000-3099
Processor / Issuing BankFiat Account / Payment creation contains criteria that Circle's partner processor or the Issuing Bank are unable to accept.
E.g. unsupported issuer country, authorization failure.
3100-3199
Regulatory Compliance InterventionInterventions by Circle Risk Service due to legal & regulatory compliance requirements.
E.g. KYC verification limits.
3200-3299
Fraud Risk InterventionFiat Account / Payment creation was actioned by Circle's Risk Service due to identified fraud management issues.
E.g. Excessive Chargeback Rates, Immediate Fraud Pressure.
3300-3499
Customer ConfigurationUnsupported

Fiat Account / Payment creation was actioned by Circle's Risk Service due to customer configuration or request.
E.g. Block Issuer Country, Block Card Type, etc.
3500-3599
Customer ConfigurationFraud

Fiat Account / Payment creation was actioned by Circle's Risk Service due to customer configuration or request.
E.g. User was added to watchlist
3600-3699

The specific reason codes that apply currently are documented below.

Reason CodeExplanation
Circle Blocked
3000Default
3001Prohibited Issuer (Bank) Country
3002Prohibited Billing Address Country
3020Fiat Account Denied (See Fiat Account for Reason)
3022Fiat Account (Card) Evaluation Timeout. We recommend retrying.
3023Fiat Account (Bank Account) Evaluation Timeout. We recommend retrying.
3026Fiat Account in Unverified State.
3027Fiat Account in Suspended State.
3030Unsupported Bank Account Routing Number (rtn)
3040Unsupported Activity Type
3050Customer suspended from Payment Processing
3070Transaction exceeds the risk limits
3071Limit for Daily Aggregate exceeded (email)
3072Limit for Daily Aggregate exceeded (fiat)
3075Limit for Weekly Aggregate exceeded (email)
3076Limit for Weekly Aggregate exceeded (fiat)
Regulatory Compliance Intervention
3200 - 3202Unsupported Criteria
3210Withdrawal Limit Exceeded (7 Day Default Payout Limit)
3211Withdrawal Limit Exceeded (7 Day Custom Payout Limit)
3220Compliance Limit Exceeded
Fraud Risk Intervention
3300 - 3309Transaction Declined by Circle Risk Service. Please reach out to [email protected] for more information
3310Fiat Account directly associated with fraudulent activity
3311Email Address directly associated with fraudulent activity
3320Fiat Account associated with network fraud notification
3321Email Account associated with network fraud notification
3330Fiat Account flagged by Risk Team
3331Email Account flagged by Risk team
3340Fiat Account linked to previous fraudulent activity
3341Email Address linked to previous fraudulent activity
33503DS authentication is required for this transaction
Processor / Issuing Bank
3100Unsupported Return Code Response from Processor / Issuing Bank - Default
3101Invalid Return Code Response from Issuing Bank E.g Invalid Card
3102Fraudulent Return Code Response from Issuing Bank E.g Pickup Card
3103Redlisted Entity Return Code Response from Processor E.g Card Redlisted
3104Account associated with an invalid ACH RTN
3105Expired Card
3150Administrative return from ODFI / RDFI
3151Return indicating ineligible account from customer / RDFI
3152Unsupported transaction type return from customer / RDFI
Customer Configuration - Unsupported
3500Default
3501Blocked Issuer (Bank) Country
3502Blocked Billing Address Country
3520Blocked Card Type E.g. Credit
3530 - 3539Chargeback History on Circle Platform
3540 - 3549Chargeback History on Customer Platform
3550Blocked Fiat (Card)
3551Blocked Email Address
3552Blocked Phone Number
Customer Configuration - Fraud
3600 - 3699Blocked by fraud watchlist

If you are interested in some custom configurations, please contact the Circle Risk team.