diff --git a/packages/api-derive/src/accounts/accountId.ts b/packages/api-derive/src/accounts/accountId.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6a655be621
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/api-derive/src/accounts/accountId.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+// Copyright 2017-2020 @polkadot/api-derive authors & contributors
+// This software may be modified and distributed under the terms
+// of the Apache-2.0 license. See the LICENSE file for details.
+
+import { AccountId, AccountIndex, Address } from '@polkadot/types/interfaces';
+
+import { Observable, of } from 'rxjs';
+import { map } from 'rxjs/operators';
+import { ApiInterfaceRx } from '@polkadot/api/types';
+import { isU8a, assert } from '@polkadot/util';
+import { decodeAddress } from '@polkadot/util-crypto';
+
+import { memo } from '../util';
+
+function retrieve (api: ApiInterfaceRx, address: Address | AccountId | AccountIndex | string | null | undefined): Observable<AccountId> {
+  const decoded = isU8a(address)
+    ? address
+    : decodeAddress((address || '').toString());
+
+  if (decoded.length === 32) {
+    return of(api.registry.createType('AccountId', decoded));
+  }
+
+  const accountIndex = api.registry.createType('AccountIndex', decoded);
+
+  return api.derive.accounts.indexToId(accountIndex.toString()).pipe(
+    map((accountId) => {
+      assert(accountId, 'Unable to retrieve accountId');
+
+      return accountId;
+    })
+  );
+}
+
+/**
+ * @name accountId
+ * @param {(Address | AccountId | AccountIndex | string | null)} address - An accounts address in various formats.
+ * @description  An [[AccountId]]
+ */
+export function accountId (api: ApiInterfaceRx): (address?: Address | AccountId | AccountIndex | string | null) => Observable<AccountId> {
+  return memo((address?: Address | AccountId | AccountIndex | string | null): Observable<AccountId> =>
+    retrieve(api, address));
+}
diff --git a/packages/api-derive/src/accounts/index.ts b/packages/api-derive/src/accounts/index.ts
index 363a4e72f2..6af90840f1 100644
--- a/packages/api-derive/src/accounts/index.ts
+++ b/packages/api-derive/src/accounts/index.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 // This software may be modified and distributed under the terms
 // of the Apache-2.0 license. See the LICENSE file for details.
 
+export * from './accountId';
 export * from './flags';
 export * from './idAndIndex';
 export * from './idToIndex';
diff --git a/packages/api-derive/src/balances/account.ts b/packages/api-derive/src/balances/account.ts
index 4296169d1f..ebd759a135 100644
--- a/packages/api-derive/src/balances/account.ts
+++ b/packages/api-derive/src/balances/account.ts
@@ -82,8 +82,8 @@ function queryCurrent (api: ApiInterfaceRx, accountId: AccountId): Observable<Re
  */
 export function account (api: ApiInterfaceRx): (address: AccountIndex | AccountId | Address | string) => Observable<DeriveBalancesAccount> {
   return memo((address: AccountIndex | AccountId | Address | string): Observable<DeriveBalancesAccount> =>
-    api.derive.accounts.info(address).pipe(
-      switchMap(({ accountId }): Observable<[AccountId, Result]> =>
+    api.derive.accounts.accountId(address).pipe(
+      switchMap((accountId): Observable<[AccountId, Result]> =>
         (accountId
           ? combineLatest([
             of(accountId),