Travel Rule QuickStart Guide
Get started with the Sumsub Travel Rule in just 7 days.
As a comprehensive measure that allows businesses to safely and efficiently share necessary information when conducting transactions, Travel Rule includes many steps and settings that will ensure the security of data exchange.
This Quickstart Guide is engineered to help you seamlessly integrate the Sumsub Travel Rule solution into your operations. It outlines the step-by-step process for onboarding as a VASP, configuring essential rules, and conducting data exchanges with other VASPs.
Who should be involved from your team:
- Compliance lead/Product owner – Oversees integration, compliance settings, and internal coordination.
- Tech team/Developers – Manage technical integration and API implementations.
- AML/Risk officers – Monitor compliance, handle due diligence, and ensure adherence to regulatory standards.
Follow the steps below, and you will be fully compliant in just one week.
Step 1: Onboard as a VASP with Sumsub
Estimated time: 1 day
To start using the Sumsub Travel Rule solution, your company needs to register as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) within the Sumsub ecosystem.
To contact Sumsub:
- Reach out via the official website or directly contact your account manager.
- Sign the service provider agreement.
After signing the agreement, you will receive the credentials to access the Dashboard and the Sandbox environment, where you can test our platform.
To complete onboarding, you must configure team access by setting permissions and roles for your team members.
Step 2: Join Sumsub Travel Rule ecosystem
Estimated time: 1 day
You will receive a Sumsub registration form either via email or from your contact person. Fill in the form to make you visible to other VASPs.
Within 24 hours, you will receive a pop-up notification on your Dashboard to complete the VASP Due Diligence, which will allow you to become a full member of the ecosystem. We recommend that you fill this before you go live in order to experience the full functionality of the solution.
Step 3: Configure Travel Rule rules
Estimated time: 1 day
Install the Travel Rule rules bundle from the Rules Library along with jurisdiction-specific rule bundles (such as Travel Rule: UK, Travel Rule: EU, and so on) based on your country of registration.
We recommend enabling the entire Travel Rule bundle when integrating the product to cover all of the check steps.
After installation, switch from the Test mode and activate the rules.
Step 4: Test Travel Rule messaging on the Sandbox
Estimated time: 1 day
You can test various scenarios of VASP data exchange before conducting the actual Travel Rule data exchange transactions.
Switch to Sandbox mode and create a data exchange transaction in the Dashboard with the pre-defined transaction data from this table.
If you want to create data exchange transactions manually on production, switch from Sandbox mode to submit actual data exchange transactions in the Dashboard:
- On the Transactions page, click Create transaction manually and select the applicant.
- Choose the data exchange transaction type and fill in the required data.
Step 5: Send data exchange transactions via API
Estimated time: 3 days
The flow of Travel Rule information exchange depends on the type of data exchange transaction: inbound or outbound.
Note
It is highly recommended that you specify the counterparty VASP ID when sending data exchange transactions. You can get the list of VASPs and their details here.
Outbound data exchange transactions flow
To send outbound data exchange transaction, first request counterparty information:
- Check what information about the originator, the originating VASP, and the expected beneficiary is mandatory or optional for your jurisdiction.
- Submit a Travel Rule data exchange transaction for non-existing applicant using this API method. You can also create a data exchange transaction with an existing applicant data.
If the data exchange transaction has been approved, proceed to updating blockchain transaction ID. Patch the data exchange transaction with a chain transaction ID after the execution on the blockchain via this API method.
Inbound data exchange transaction flow
First, you will receive a notification about the inbound data exchange transaction:
- If the wallet address belongs to your applicant, confirm wallet ownership using this API method. You can use this method to reject wallet ownership if the data exchange transaction was mistakenly sent to your applicant.
- Connect wallet address with an applicant to whom the data exchange transaction was sent.
Inbound data exchange transaction flow (no prior creation)
This flow is applied when the originating VASP has not sent a Travel Rule data exchange transaction:
- Collect the information about the originator and the originating VASP, the expected beneficiary and the beneficiary VASP, and the blockchain transaction ID.
- Submit the inbound Travel Rule data exchange transaction via this API method using previously collected data.
Wallet Address Book
To fully ensure the delivery of inbound Travel Rule data exchange transaction, import wallet addresses of your applicants and submit identifiable user information, such as the applicant ID or unique identifier.
Unhosted Wallet Verification
Some wallets might be identified as unhosted if they are not associated with any known VASP:
- Unhosted wallet verification automatically initiates.
- You will receive an SDK verification link. Sign the data exchange transaction using your private wallet key.
- Sumsub will confirm wallet ownership and send a notification with the result.
Useful Resources
See the following articles to learn more about the Travel Rule solution:
Updated 2 days ago