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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:

  1. Reach out via the official website or directly contact your account manager.
  2. 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 messages.

Switch to Sandbox mode and create a message in the Dashboard with the pre-defined message data from this table.

If you want to create messages manually on production, switch from Sandbox mode to submit actual messages in the Dashboard:

  1. On the Transactions page, click Create transaction manually and select the applicant.
  2. Choose the message type and fill in the required data.

Step 5: Send messages via API

Estimated time: 3 days

The flow of Travel Rule information exchange depends on the type of message: inbound or outbound.

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Note

It is highly recommended that you specify the counterparty VASP ID when sending messages. You can get the list of VASPs and their details here.

Outbound messages flow

To send outbound message, first request counterparty information:

  1. Check what information about the originator, the originating VASP, and the expected beneficiary is mandatory or optional for your jurisdiction.
  2. Submit a Travel Rule message for non-existing applicant using this API method. You can also create a message with an existing applicant data.

If the message has been approved, proceed to updating blockchain transaction ID. Patch the message with a chain transaction ID after the execution on the blockchain via this API method.

Inbound messages flow

First, you will receive a notification about the inbound message:

  1. 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 message was mistakenly sent to your applicant.
  2. Connect wallet address with an applicant to whom the message was sent.

Inbound messages flow (no prior creation)

This flow is applied when the originating VASP has not sent a Travel Rule message:

  1. Collect the information about the originator and the originating VASP, the expected beneficiary and the beneficiary VASP, and the blockchain transaction ID.
  2. Submit the inbound Travel Rule message via this API method using previously collected data.

Wallet Address Book

To fully ensure the delivery of inbound Travel Rule messages, 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 message 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 1 day ago