Overview

A payment instrument represents a specific method for delivering funds to a payee. A single payee can have multiple instruments -- for example, a contractor might have both a US bank account and a UK bank account. When creating a payout, you specify which instrument to use via the instrument_id field.

Supported Instrument Types

Anton supports the following instrument types:

Bank Account (bank_account) -- Traditional bank accounts for fiat payouts. The required fields depend on the destination country and rail.
Wallet (wallet) -- Crypto or digital wallets for stablecoin and cryptocurrency payouts.
Card (card) -- Debit cards for supported corridors.

Required Fields by Country

Bank account instruments require different fields depending on the destination:

US (ACH) -- account_number, routing_number
UK (Faster Payments) -- account_number, sort_code
EU (SEPA) -- iban
International (SWIFT) -- iban or account_number, plus swift_code

Adding an Instrument in the Merchant Portal

Navigate to Payees, select the payee, and click Add Instrument. Choose the instrument type, enter the currency and account details, then save. The instrument appears in the payee's instrument list and can be selected when creating payouts.

Adding an Instrument via the API

Send a POST request to /v1/payees/{payee_id}/instruments.

Add a US bank account:

curl https://api.antonpayments.dev/v1/payees/pye_abc123/instruments \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ak_test_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "bank_account",
    "currency": "USD",
    "details": {
      "account_number": "9876543210",
      "routing_number": "021000021"
    }
  }'

Add a UK bank account to the same payee:

curl https://api.antonpayments.dev/v1/payees/pye_abc123/instruments \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ak_test_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "bank_account",
    "currency": "GBP",
    "details": {
      "account_number": "12345678",
      "sort_code": "601234"
    }
  }'

Listing Instruments

Retrieve all instruments attached to a payee:

curl https://api.antonpayments.dev/v1/payees/pye_abc123/instruments \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ak_test_..."

The response includes each instrument's id, type, currency, and status.

Using Instruments in Payouts

When creating a payout, specify the instrument_id to indicate which payment method to use. If a payee has only one instrument, it is used by default. If a payee has multiple instruments, you must specify which one to use.

Best Practices

Validate instrument details when you add them, not when you need to send a payment. This catches errors early.
Use one payee with multiple instruments rather than creating duplicate payees for different payment methods.
Keep instrument details up to date. If a payee changes banks, add a new instrument and deactivate the old one.

Adding Payment Instruments