📄 Guide
As a card issuer regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) with its own BIN, DCS has full KYC/AML and Travel Rule capability built in — an end user must pass KYC before a card can be issued, topped up or spent, and cross-border fund movements must additionally satisfy the Travel Rule. We offer both a direct API integration and a hosted (H5) self-service flow, so you can choose how deep to integrate. In DeCard-managed mode the review decision happens inside DCS (automated review plus manual review where needed), so you never handle document retention, liveness detection or anti-money-laundering screening yourself.Compliance: supported markets and document requirements
Before issuing a card to an end user, settle two compliance facts with DCS first: whether cards can be issued in that user’s region, and which documents they need to prepare. Both are decided by your agreement with DCS together with the user’s region.What KYC consists of
DCS compliance requires four categories of material from each user:- POI (proof of identity) — establishes who this person is
- POA (proof of address) — establishes where this person lives
- Liveness (face verification) — establishes that this is a real person, acting for themselves
- Background information (employment status, source of funds, account purpose and so on) — feeds the anti-money-laundering risk assessment
KYC documents (POI and POA)
DCS whitelists the documents of certain countries and regions so that one document serves as both proof of identity (POI) and proof of address (POA) — a user whose document is whitelisted submits that single document plus a face check and background information, with no separate proof of address. If the identity document carries no address, the user must supply a POA as well. For the image requirements, see KYC document requirements.Cardholder eligibility
- Age: between 18 and 70
- Tax status: not a US resident and not a US tax resident
- Residence: only regions covered by your agreement with DCS can be issued cards
Background information
AML rules require the user to submit the relevant information. For the complete enumerations, see card application parameter dictionary.Mental model: one application, one status line
A user (externalUserId) submits KYC once. DCS runs the automated review internally (roughly 3 minutes) plus manual review where needed, and the outcome always resolves to a single top-level status (five values in total). Within PENDING, the case may move from automated to manual review; that transition is expressed by the sub-status statusDescription rather than by two separate top-level states.
For how to tell “rejected but resubmission is possible” apart from “not approved”, see KYC rejections and resubmission.The overall lifecycle of a user’s KYC and compliance status:
Who does what: DCS receives and securely stores documents, runs automated and manual review, performs AML screening, advances the status, and notifies you. The partner initiates the application, guides the user through the steps that need user participation (face verification, resubmission), and drives card issuing based on the outcome.
Besides the API, DCS also offers a hosted H5 guidance page, where the user completes KYC (identity verification, face verification, resubmission) directly on a DCS-hosted page, so you do not need to build a KYC front end. See H5 KYC / card application guidance page.
Travel Rule: a separate gate beyond KYC
The Travel Rule is a compliance gate separate from KYC: before a user can obtain an on-chain deposit address, they must first upload their Travel Rule information (identity, address and, where required, source of funds or wealth). See Travel Rule.Sumsub token integration (data provider)
- You are the data provider: obtain the UAT and PROD tokens from DCS and add them in the Sumsub console; your registered Sumsub name is visible in the DCS Sumsub console.
Next steps
Once KYC is approved (PASS), you can apply for a virtual card for the user — continue with How-to · Issuing cards. If users are to top up themselves, complete Travel Rule first.
The other two pages in this Basic Concepts group — Account and asset model: ledgering and Transaction lifecycle — are background reading and do not block card issuing; you can come back to them before you integrate balances and transactions.