Introduction to Virtual Accounts

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Plaid's virtual account API allows you to collect domestic payments, initiate payouts and refunds, and streamline reconciliation processes. Virtual accounts provide granular control and visibility throughout the entire lifecycle of a payment. While Plaid’s Payment Initiation API handles account funding use cases, virtual accounts can be layered on top of Payment Initiation functionality to provide insight into the settlement status of all transactions, pay out to your merchants, allow end users to withdraw their funds, and issue refunds.

For example, if you have a brokerage app, you can use Payment Initiation for end users to fund their accounts. Payment Confirmation will inform you when your end users' payments have settled so you can release these funds for your end users to purchase equities. When your end users sell their equity purchases, you can use Payouts to let them cash out their earnings.