Transfer approval

The transfer-approval compliance module blocks any regulated transfer until a named approval authority grants it for the exact sender, recipient, and amount. Use the module for securities that need transfer-agent oversight, restricted-equity programs where the issuer must clear every sale, or any operating model that requires pre-clearance in place of (or alongside) policy-based eligibility checks.

For the architecture reference, see Transfer approval.

Prerequisites

• The asset already exists, configured during creation, or you hold the Asset administrator role on the deployed asset.
• The approver wallets or OnchainIDs are known and the operating team has agreed who holds the approval role.
• A workflow exists for collecting transfer-approval requests off chain and bringing them to the approver. The approver still acts through the platform, but the case-management workflow often runs in the operator's normal compliance tooling.

Configure during asset creation

In the Asset Designer compliance step, pick the transfer-approval module. Configure:

• The approver wallet(s) or OnchainID(s) authorised to grant approvals.
• Any approval expiry window. An unused approval expires after this window.
• Whether self-approval is allowed. Set this to false for separation of duties.

Configure on an existing asset

From the asset detail workspace, open the compliance tab and update the transfer-approval configuration. Changes apply forward; pending approvals issued under the previous configuration remain valid until they execute or expire.

Approve a transfer

An approver pre-clears a specific transfer before the holder executes it. From the asset detail workspace, open the Manage asset menu and choose Approve transfer. This menu item appears when the asset uses the transfer-approval module and your identity is listed as an approval authority for that module.

In the sheet, enter:

• The sender wallet address.
• The recipient wallet address.
• The exact amount to clear.

Review the summary, then confirm with your wallet. The approval clears exactly one transfer matching those parameters. The holder executes the transfer within the approval window; once executed, the approval is consumed.

How the approval behaves depends on the module's configured mode:

• Exact: the approval clears exactly one transfer whose amount matches the approved amount precisely. A different sender, recipient, or amount is not covered.
• Up to once: the approval clears one transfer of any amount up to the approved limit, then it is consumed.
• Up to total: the approval clears multiple transfers whose cumulative amount does not exceed the approved limit. Each transfer reduces the remaining allowance until the limit is exhausted.

Both menu items appear in the Manage asset menu only when the asset has the transfer-approval module configured and you hold the matching approval permission.

The approver workflow can also run through the work queue:

1. The holder requests a transfer through the normal transfer flow. The module records a pending approval.
2. The approver opens the work queue, reviews the pending transfer including parties, amount, asset, and supporting context, then grants or rejects the request.
3. The granted approval permits exactly one transfer matching the recorded parameters. The holder executes the transfer within the approval window.

See the work queue guide for the queue-based approver workflow.

Track and revoke approvals

The asset's compliance tab lists every transfer approval on the asset. Each row shows the sender, recipient, amount, expiry ("Never" when no window is set), and status:

Revoke an approval to cancel it before the holder uses it. With the revoke-transfer-approval permission, select Revoke on a pending row in the list, or open the Manage asset menu, choose Revoke transfer approval, and enter the approval's parameters. Only pending approvals can be revoked. Consumed and revoked approvals are final.

Operating considerations

• The module requires approval for every regulated transfer. Mints and burns are not regulated transfers under this module. They go through the supply-management role.
• Approval is per transfer instance, not per holder pair. A repeat transfer between the same holders requires a fresh approval.
• Approvals do not bypass other compliance modules. A transfer approved by the transfer-approval module still must pass identity verification, country restrictions, and any other configured module.
• Pending approvals carry an audit trail. Rejected approvals also record the rejecting wallet and timestamp.

What stays external

The off-chain case-management workflow, covering ticket tracking, reviewer communication, and supporting-document collection, stays with your operating team. So does the policy that defines what a reviewer should consider before granting approval.

Troubleshooting

Read next

• Compliance overview
• Transfer approval architecture
• Work queue for the queue-based approver workflow.