> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tesouro.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bank accounts

> Internal bank accounts held at Tesouro's sponsor bank versus external bank accounts linked from outside banks — what each is for and how they reach a usable state.

Bank accounts are the financial primitive every other Embedded Banking object hangs off — transfers move funds between them, statements summarize them, webhooks announce changes on them. "Bank account" specifically means a deposit-account record on the `bank-accounts` resource, distinct from ledger accounts and other account types elsewhere on the platform. Two kinds exist, and they get into the system differently.

* **Internal bank accounts** live at Tesouro's sponsor bank. They're created when a [bank account application](/embedded-banking/guides/bank-account-applications/overview) reaches `COMPLETE`, and their `id` is what most endpoints take as a path parameter.
* **External bank accounts** live at the user's outside bank and exist inside Embedded Banking only as a verified pointer that ACH can target. They're a top-level resource at `/embedded-banking/v1/external-bank-accounts` and are created by the [linking flow](/embedded-banking/guides/bank-accounts/linking-external-accounts).

The two kinds have different lifecycles and different things you can do with them:

|                                  | Internal                                    | External                                                                                                                                  |
| :------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------ | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Resource path                    | `/embedded-banking/v1/bank-accounts`        | `/embedded-banking/v1/external-bank-accounts`                                                                                             |
| Where the funds live             | Tesouro's sponsor bank                      | The user's outside bank                                                                                                                   |
| How it's created                 | Bank account application reaches `COMPLETE` | Connect + link + validate flow with micro-ACH verification                                                                                |
| Holds a balance Tesouro can read | Yes                                         | No — Tesouro doesn't see the upstream balance                                                                                             |
| Can be source or destination     | Either, on every rail                       | ACH only, gated on `VERIFIED`                                                                                                             |
| Lifecycle states                 | `ACTIVE`, `CLOSED`                          | `verificationStatus`: `UNVERIFIED`, `VERIFICATION_SENT`, `VERIFIED`, `FAILED`; `accountStatus`: `ACTIVE` until upstream signals otherwise |

## Where to next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Internal bank accounts" icon="building-columns" href="/embedded-banking/guides/bank-accounts/internal-accounts">
    How an internal bank account gets provisioned post-KYB and what's usable on day one.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Closing a bank account" icon="circle-xmark" href="/embedded-banking/guides/bank-accounts/closing-accounts">
    Patching `status` to `CLOSED`, what the sponsor bank rejects, and how the post-closure state
    behaves.
  </Card>

  <Card title="External bank accounts" icon="link" href="/embedded-banking/guides/bank-accounts/external-accounts">
    Why external bank accounts exist, what's on the record, and how they relate to money movement.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Linking an external bank account" icon="plug" href="/embedded-banking/guides/bank-accounts/linking-external-accounts">
    The three-call connect/link/validate sequence and the verification statuses.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Troubleshooting" icon="wrench" href="/embedded-banking/guides/bank-accounts/troubleshooting">
    Missing micro-deposits, failed verification, rejecting banks, and post-verification failures.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Daily balance export" icon="file-csv" href="/embedded-banking/guides/bank-accounts/daily-balance-export">
    A once-daily, PGP-encrypted CSV of every active account's end-of-day balance across your
    organization tree.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>