In March, we launched the first version of the new Bloc API and dashboard, dubbed Bloc 2.0. Since day 01 of launch, we’ve worked closely with our customers to continuously improve the product and launch new features.

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Here's a number of updates we've made in the last 4 weeks.

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Improved KYC Upgrade

KYC Verification is an important, non-negotiable part of how Bloc businesses create and issue virtual accounts to their customers.

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Here’s what we’ve done to improve the experience while ensuring air-tight security.

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• Changed how we verify BVN details — Our T1 verification process now matches the customer’s BVN details with their full name and their date of birth. Our businesses can now onboard with lost phone numbers without stress or the fear of churn during the sign-up process.
• No two customers can have the same BVN — Businesses can no longer create/have more than one customer with the same BVN. However, businesses can create as many accounts as they want for one customer.
• Introduced face verification — When uploading passport photographs or liveliness checks, a KYC verification request will now be automatically denied if a face cannot be detected in the photo uploaded. This is available on both the API and the Dashboard.

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Introducing KYC Revalidation

We make security updates every week to protect our businesses from bad actors or fraudulent customers.

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If you, as a business owner, suspect that a customer is fraudulent or identify a piece of suspicious information, you can now revalidate their KYC details from the Bloc Dashboard. To do so, go to Customers → click on “More” → select “Revalidate Customer KYC”.

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What happens is that we pass all of their submitted KYC details through our system, and we deliver the results to your email.

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Improved Collection Accounts

Before now, you could only use Collection Accounts once. Now we’ve introduced a frequency attribute that allows you to customize how long you want a Collection Account to be valid for. It could be once, twice, ten times, or forever.

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This is currently only available on the Bloc API.

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Bulk Transfers v1.0

You can now send money to up to 1000 bank accounts at once by simply uploading a CSV template and voila. We wrote a step-by-step guide on how to do it here. Click here to read it.

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Improvement to Bloc Transfers

Here are a couple of things we added to our Transfers product to give you more control over what’s happening with Transfers.

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• Instant reversal for failed transfers — A failed transfer means that we were unable to send the money to the receiving bank. This may be due to server downtime reasons or being able to get response from the receiving bank. When this happens, we reverse the money (and the accompanying fees) instantly, and you’ll see it as a CR transaction.
• View reason for failed transfers — We included a failure reason field for when transfers fail. This gives businesses the details they need to inform their customers with.
• Query NIP transaction — Businesses can now get/copy the NIP transaction reference of every transfer done with Bloc. In cases of delayed settlement by the receiving bank, this reference can be used to lodge a complaint and promptly resolve the issue.

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Simulate CR/DR transactions in Test Mode

In Test Mode, you cannot send or receive money. However, everything works as it should in Live Mode. We deduct fees when you perform a test transaction or try to upgrade KYC, etc.

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We have included a simulation feature that allows you to perform a credit and debit feature without needing real money.

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• Main Balance — Go to Balances on Test Mode. In your Main Balance, you’ll see a button, “Add Money”. Click on it and input the money you want to add to your balance, and you’re done.
• Accounts — When you create a virtual account in Test Mode, you can go to the Accounts page and search for the accounts. In the Actions tab, click on “Create a test transaction”, and you can either perform a test deposit/CR or withdrawal/DR transaction on your dashboard.

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Note: You can use our existing simulation endpoint to also do this via the Bloc API.

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Get started with Bloc here. We are looking forward to having you.