# Balance Check
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-europe/documentation/unlicensed/insights/balance/index.md

## Overview {#overview}

Balance Check provides real-time bank account balance information from an end user's financial institution through Open Finance account information services.

* Make informed risk or payment decisions with access to balance information
* Improve convenience, efficiency and security with consented access to bank account balances.

The data returned as part of this solution includes:

* Available balance - the amount of money that the account holder can spend or withdraw immediately.
* Booked balance - the total amount of money in the account which might include funds from checks that have not cleared yet and pending withdrawals/payments

This solution can be offered in combination with the [Account Owner Verification](https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-europe/documentation/unlicensed/insights/account-owner/index.md) service.

## Benefits {#benefits}

* **Improve payment success**: Increase collection rates for regular payments, or manage risk at onboarding by ensuring sufficient funds are available.
* **Streamline affordability assessments**: Access to booked and available balance in real-time for affordability.

## Participants and interactions {#participants-and-interactions}

Insights provides actionable data retrieved Open Finance connectivity through a single platform that supports multiple products including Balance Check.
![](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/open-finance-europe/uploads/insights/participants-interactions-bc.png)

|      Participant      |                                                                 Description                                                                  |                                       Example                                       |
|-----------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Consumer**          | Consumer provides consent to share account information. This is also defined as the payment service user "PSU".                              | Bank account holder                                                                 |
| **Business**          | Business provides consent to share account information. This is also defined as the payment service user "PSU".                              | Business bank account holder                                                        |
| **Bank**              | The financial institution where the consumer holds an account. This is also defined as the Account Service Payment Service Provider "ASPSP". | Retail banking provider Business banking provider                                   |
| **Integrator**        | Initiates request for Balance Check through the Insights API endpoint.                                                                       | Merchants PSPs Technical Service Provider Payment Facilitator Financial Institution |
| **Insights Platform** | Serves as an integration point for integrators to offer Insights services. Returns the account balance.                                      | Mastercard                                                                          |

## How it works {#how-it-works}

Diagram bc-how-it-works

**Detailed steps are explained below:**

1. End user initiates the service with the integrator. For example, a consumer sets up a direct debit mandate with a business during onboarding.
2. Integrator submits the Insights job through the Insights endpoint and specifies which services they would like (e.g. Account_Balance).
3. Mastercard validates the client credentials.
4. Mastercard returns the Connect URL which is then presented to the end user on the client's site.
5. End user is taken through the Connect Flow and provides consent to share account information.
6. Mastercard requests and receives the account information from the bank.
7. Integrator requests the Insight results.
8. Mastercard returns the account identifier, available and booked balance.

## User journey {#user-journey}

When the end user is redirected to our service in order to connect to your service, they will need to give consent and connect their bank. For Balance Check, the end user will follow our [one-time flow](https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-europe/documentation/unlicensed/aiia-data/connect/one-time-flow/index.md) which is adjusted according the purpose of data use in line with PSD2. End users now have the option of performing a one-time Connect Flow, which will then delete all their data within a 24-hour period. This is useful if you only need to receive data from the user once.

The default language of the consent wording is set to English and additional languages can be made available to support with localisation.

The end-to-end consent flow is referenced below. For further information, see the [one-time flow](https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-europe/documentation/unlicensed/aiia-data/connect/one-time-flow/index.md).

## Next steps {#next-steps}

* Learn more about our [Connect Flow](https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-europe/documentation/unlicensed/insights/one-time-connect-flow/index.md) and the steps the customer will go through.
* Refer to the [Quick Start guide](https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-europe/documentation/unlicensed/insights/quickstart/index.md) for the API integration steps.
* Refer to the [API References](https://developer.mastercard.com/open-finance-europe/documentation/unlicensed/insights/api-references/index.md) to learn more about the API.

### Getting help {#getting-help}

Complete the [Contact Us](https://openbankingeu.mastercard.com/contact-us) form if you have any questions or require assistance.