Administrators of officiating organizations that wish to send financial payments through the Horizon Payment Center must perform identity verification before gaining access to this functionality. The Horizon Payment Center is powered and operated by a third-party financial provider, Dwolla Inc., which facilitates the actual financial transactions. To gain access to this functionality, both Horizon and Dwolla will verify your identity for security, privacy, fraud prevention, and anti-money laundering purposes.

Before you can communicate with the Dwolla system in any capacity, Horizon will verify the identity of any officiating organization administrator or assignor wishing to create a Dwolla account or initiate any financial transactions. We do this through a different third-party provider, Stripe.com, to protect the Horizon platform and community. You may see details on this process in this support article. This process usually takes less than 5 minutes to complete, but it can take up to 2 business days in more complicated scenarios. This verification process has no cost, but it will be required once every six months to continually verify that anyone performing financial transactions is legitimate.

Upon creating a Dwolla Payment Sender Account in the Horizon Payment Center, Dwolla will perform identity verification validation on the user that created the account. They will also perform verification on the business information. Although Dwolla does this for the same reasons that Horizon does, Dwolla has its own separate verification process that must be completed separately after creating a Payment Sender Account. You may see details on this process in this support article. This process can be more intense than the Horizon verification process, but with a little patience and due diligence, the process can be successfully navigated to get you up and running. This process is only required once upon initially opening a sender account with Dwolla.

Identity verification is critical in maintaining the security, privacy, and compliance of financial transactions within the Horizon Payment Center. By verifying the identity of officiating organization administrators and assignors, we can protect against unauthorized access, fraud, and potential money laundering activities.

KYC and AML frameworks safeguard financial systems and prevent illicit activities. It is essential to understand that Horizon and Dwolla adhere to these regulatory frameworks to create a secure and compliant payment environment.

While Horizon is primarily a referee software system, integrating the Dwolla, Inc. software via the Horizon Payment Center introduces financial transactions within the platform. By implementing identity verification measures, we actively mitigate the risk of fraudsters exploiting our system for illicit purposes. The verification process ensures that all users are legitimate, trustworthy, and compliant with KYC and AML regulations.

Verifying the identities of officiating organization administrators and the business information associated with the Dwolla Payment Sender Account adds an additional layer of security and fosters a trusted environment for financial transactions.

We recognize that identity verification may seem extensive for a referee software system. However, it is imperative to prioritize the integrity of the payment ecosystem and align with industry standards to prevent misuse and protect our users.