Knowledge Base Overview

Cashela API – Knowledge Base

The Knowledge Base helps integrators, developers, and business teams understand the foundational concepts, compliance requirements, and operational best practices when working with the Cashela API.

It consolidates technical definitions, security guidelines, and workflows to ensure secure, compliant, and efficient integrations.

Core Concepts

API Authentication & Credentials

Business Key and Business Secret are generated in the Cashela Business Dashboard.
All API requests require Basic Authentication with these credentials.
IP allow-listing is mandatory for security.

Environments

Sandbox – Development and testing.
Production – Live transactions.
Separate Base URLs are used for each environment.

Financial Instruments Overview

Cashela enables global deposits through diverse financial instruments. Each channel has unique operational characteristics and regional advantages, ensuring your business can support the most effective payment methods per market.

Bank Transfers

Traditional deposits directly from customer bank accounts. Supported methods include:

ACH – Low-cost domestic transfers in the United States.
SEPA – Euro-denominated payments within Europe.
SWIFT – International wire transfers across global banks.

Commonly used in B2B and high-value transactions for their reliability and traceability.

Card Payments

Supports major card schemes including Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
Ideal for e-commerce, subscriptions, and instant deposits.

Digital Wallets

Mobile and regional wallets for fast and inclusive payments. Cashela supports:

Pix (Brazil)
M-Pesa (East Africa)
Tigo Money, Nequi (LATAM)

Wallets are critical for mobile-first economies and underbanked populations.

Vouchers

Prepaid codes purchased from retail or online outlets, redeemed digitally. Cashela integrates with:

Ualá, Western Union, Walmart, 7-Eleven

Cash Deposits

For markets with lower digital adoption, Cashela supports physical cash deposits through agents and retail points, including:

Boleto Rápido, Oxxo (Mexico)
Bancolombia (Colombia)

During integration, Cashela dynamically exposes the appropriate instruments per country and currency.

Compliance & Security

KYC/KYB Processes

Cashela enforces strict compliance before enabling production access.

KYC – Individuals:

Full name, date of birth, nationality.
Government-issued photo ID.
Proof of address.
Biometric verification where required.

KYB – Businesses:

Incorporation certificate or registration.
Tax Identification Number (TIN).
Proof of address.
Verification of directors and ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs).
Settlement bank account verification.

Transaction Monitoring

Real-Time Screening – Against sanctions and PEP lists.
AML Detection – Identifies suspicious transaction patterns.
Manual Review – Compliance team investigates flagged items.
Regulatory Reporting – Obligatory reporting to FIUs when required.

Data Protection

PCI DSS Level 1 certified.
Encryption – TLS 1.2+ in transit, AES-256 at rest.
No plain text storage for sensitive data.
Data minimization – Only essential personal data processed.
GDPR compliance for applicable regions.

Integration Best Practices

Error Handling & Retries

Implement retry logic for HTTP 5xx errors.
Validate inputs before API submission.

Webhook Security & Idempotency

Verify source headers or IP addresses.
Ensure webhook handlers are idempotent.

Global API Guidelines

Terminology & Conventions

Country codes: ISO-3 (e.g., MEX, USA, BRA)
Currency codes: ISO-4217 (e.g., USD, MXN, BRL)
Field names: snake_case (e.g., first_name, last_name, external_identifier)
GET endpoints use query parameters only (no request body)

Developer Resources

API Reference documentation.
Example requests and responses.
Sandbox testing and QA guidelines.