Overview
Introduction
Welcome to Instant! Instant is Galileo's end-to-end platform that makes it simple to create digital banking and branded card experiences. This documentation includes comprehensive information for building financial products and integrating with Instant.
The fastest way to get your integration up and running is to use our Quick Start guide, which walks you through the essential integration steps. We've tried to make this documentation user-friendly, but if you have any questions, please head to our Discord Server.
Glossary
business: A business entity that has partnered with Galileo; identified by
business_id
; each business can have many products.product: A set of card and account attributes; for example,
card_color
anddaily_spending_limit
are defined in this set of attributes; identified byproduct_id
; a product is required to create a cardholder.cardholder: An individual customer who has been issued a card; identified by
cardholder_id
; each cardholder has at least one account.account: A bank account where money is stored; identified by
account_id
.card: A device for transacting at a point-of-sale; identified by
card_id
.transaction: Any type of account activity that affects your cardholder's balance; identified by
transaction_id
.access_token
: A short-lived token used to access data using the Instant API.
About the Platform
Instant is built on the core Galileo Platform, which processes billions of dollars of payments annually and inherits all scalability, reliability, and security features of the core platform.
Instant Components
All financial products built on Instant are comprised of four components:
Dashboard: A web tool for a business to manage its master funds account and card program.
Instant API: An interface for integrating with Instant.
Card Program: The underlying card program that enables a business to create Instant cards.
Digital Banking: Mobile and/or online banking applications that cardholders use to manage their accounts.
Dashboard
Getting a business_id
Before using Instant to create financial products, enroll your business through our Dashboard, and get a
business_id
.
Master Funds Account
Galileo creates a master funds account for every business that enrolls in Instant. This account can be used to instantly fund cardholder accounts, enabling a wide variety of product use cases. The
account_id
, balance, account number, routing numbers, and transactions for the master funds account are available in our Dashboard.
Creating a Product
Products are fundamental for creating Instant cardholders. Use our Dashboard to create and manage your products.
Instant API
Creating API keys
Before integrating with the Instant API, you must create an account in our Dashboard and generate an API key. Once you have a key, you can exchange it for an
access_token
. An access_token
is required for all subsequent API requests.
API Hosts
SandboxProduction
https://sandbox.galileo-ft.com/instant/v1
API Protocols
The Instant API uses POST requests to communicate and HTTP response codes to indicate status and errors. All requests must include a
Content-Type
of application/json
and the body must be valid JSON. All responses are in standard JSON.
Card Program
When a cardholder is created, a physical card is shipped to the cardholder. All cards support Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.
Digital Banking
Cardholders need a way to manage their accounts. This includes viewing balances, tracking spending, and accessing monthly statements. Digital banking is how we describe any user interface that provides these functions for cardholders.
Instant Mobile Banking is an out-of-the-box digital banking solution available for businesses. Custom interfaces are also supported but may be subject to approval by Galileo and our bank partner.