Who Adyen is
Adyen is a financial technology platform founded in 2006 in Amsterdam, where it is headquartered, and listed on Euronext Amsterdam. It is gateway, processor and acquirer in one, so a business can accept, settle and move funds on one platform, online and in person.
In the EEA it holds a banking licence from De Nederlandsche Bank, and in the UAE a Retail Payment Services licence from the Central Bank of the UAE. Large companies use it across channels, and platforms and marketplaces use it to onboard and pay out their users, which is why four of our modules connect to it.
What it does in your platform
Card acquiring
Authorises, captures and settles your merchants' card payments, with Adyen as acquirer. On phones, Adyen's mobile SDKs take Tap to Pay on iPhone and tap to pay on Android NFC phones, and every payment is matched to the ledger.
Payouts
Adyen for Platforms verifies your merchants or sellers as account holders, keeps their funds in balance accounts and pays them out to their verified bank accounts, instantly where the rail allows: within SEPA, the UK, the US and Australia.
Card issuing
Adyen Issuing gives your customers virtual and physical Visa or Mastercard cards in the EEA, the UK and the US. Adyen relays every authorisation to the module, which answers from your ledger, the customer's limits and your fraud rules.
Checkout
Processes cards and wallets in your hosted checkout: Apple Pay, Google Pay and saved cards with network tokens, and 3-D Secure 2 only when the risk calls for it.
How the connection works
Each module calls Adyen's APIs from your platform, and Adyen reports back through webhooks signed with an HMAC key. Your apps only receive what Adyen's SDKs need for the payment in front of them.
A buyer checks out
The checkout module creates a payment session with Adyen, and Adyen's Drop-in opens on the web or in your app with the methods this buyer can use.
Adyen authorises
The buyer pays by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, with 3-D Secure 2 if the risk calls for it, and Adyen authorises the payment as acquirer.
The webhook confirms
An AUTHORISATION webhook, signed with your HMAC key, gives the module the result. The module acknowledges it and the ledger records the payment.
The funds are split
On a marketplace, the payment is split between your commission and the seller's balance account on Adyen.
The seller is paid
The payouts module sends the seller's balance to their verified bank account through Adyen's Transfers API, and transfer webhooks track it to arrival.
Next to other providers
Adyen can run several modules, but it does not have to be your only provider. Card payments in the checkout can be spread across processors, acquiring traffic can be split for resilience, and in payouts your own bank partners come first, with Adyen for Platforms covering the rest.
Each module keeps its own screens and records, so using Adyen in one module does not tie the others to it. Moving a module to another provider later does not change your apps, and past payments stay in your ledger.
When Adyen fits best
A strong fit when
- You want acquiring, payouts and card issuing from one provider, on one account.
- You need a licensed provider in the EEA, the UK and the UAE alike.
- Your merchants sell online and in person, and you want both on one acquirer.
Also worth a look
- A specialist payout network or issuer processor next to Adyen, where its coverage or card programme fits better.
- A provider you already have a contract with: it becomes a connector too.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Adyen account and contract in place for the products you need: acquiring, Adyen for Platforms, Issuing, or all three.
The configuration
We set up the payment methods, your account holders and balance accounts, the payout schedules and, for issuing, the card programme and the fallback for late authorisations.
The keys
API keys and the HMAC key of every webhook endpoint go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else, so every event is proven to come from Adyen.
A full test run
Everything runs first in Adyen's test environment, with Adyen's test cards, from checkout to payout, before your first real payment.
