Sandbox Funding

In the sandbox environment, Transfer API simulates deposits and withdrawals to/from an account. The target account is immediately credited or debited upon such a request. Once an account is credited, the account can start trading with the Orders API.

ACH (US Domestic)

For US ACH, you will need to use Plaid to obtain the user’s bank account information. You then pass the information to Alpaca using ACH API to create a Bank Link object. Once a Bank Link between a user and their bank account is established, then you can initiate both deposit and withdrawal transactions using the Transfers API.

Wire

Beginning June 1, 2022, we will begin charging for outgoing wires, both domestic and international. To help you provide the optimal customer experience we support two different flows for handling the fees:

The end user pays the fee for every outgoing wire transfer that they initiate. The fee_payment_method field will be equal to user in this case. It’s important to note that the fee stated in your contract with Alpaca will automatically be deducted from the amount entered via the Transfers API so we strongly recommend adding a notice to your UI stating that the end user will incur a fee and they should incorporate that fee into their withdrawal request.
You will also have the option to pay the fee on behalf of your user for any given transfer. When creating the transfer, you will have to set the fee_payment_method field to invoice. The fee stated in your contract will not be deducted from the amount entered via the Transfers API but you will be charged this fee in your next monthly invoice.

Wire (US Domestic)

You can initiate a withdrawal transaction with wire transfer using the Transfers API. You need to create a bank object before that. For US domestic wire transactions, we will need ABA/routing number and the account number. You can supply additional text in each transaction.

In order for us to receive the deposits and book automatically, we need an “FFC” instruction in each incoming wire transaction. Please contact us for more details.

International Wire (SWIFT)

Alpaca supports international wire transfers and the API endpoint is the same as the US domestic case. You need to provide the SWIFT code and account number of the beneficiary, as well as the address and name of the receiving bank.

The FFC instructions above work for international wires too.

Cash Pooling

If you wish and are eligible, you can send customer deposits in a bulk to your firm account first and reconcile later using the Journals API.

We need to review the entire flow first to allow you to do so, and also you may need a local license to implement this process. Please check your counsel for the local requirements.

Travel Rule

In an effort to fight the criminal financial transactions, FinCEN enacted the Travel Rule, which mandates that financial institutions transmitting funds more than $3,000 must share specific information with the recipient institutions. FAFT further adopted this from FinCEN to set the global standard, to regulate financial institutions including virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and is being implemented by many countries. However, Alpaca requires adherence to this policy for all incoming deposits, regardless of amount.

Under this rule, financial institutions that transmit the funds are required to submit the following information to the recipient financial institutions (financial institutions here include banks and nonbanks; essentially any party that initiates the transfers).

When using the following APIs, you will need to ensure compliance with the Travel Rule by including breakdowns and transmitter information where applicable.

Journals API
- Create a Journal
Instant Funding API - There are two APIs under instant funding that accept transmitter information, the recommendation is to pass the information at the time of settlement creation.
- Create an intant funding request
- Create a new settlement

The table given below gives an overview of the relevant fields for both the APIs along with the field descriptions.

Journals	Instant Funding	Field description
`transmitter_name`	`originator_full_name`	The full name of the customer who is initiating the transaction.
`transmitter_account_number`	`originator_bank_account_number`	The bank account number of the customer or the account number on broker partner's system that can be used to uniquely identify the customer.
`transmitter_address`	`originator_street_address` `originator_state` `originator_city` `originator_country`	The street, city, state and country of the financial institution responsible for transmitting the funds.
`transmitter_financial_institution`	`originator_bank_name`	The name of the transmitter's financial institution
	`other_identifying_information`	Recommended to be the originating bank's reference number for the transfer

Please note that the purpose of this requirement is for the investigators to track the flow of funds in case they need to. Failure to do so could cause a civil enforcement.

Alpaca retains the collected information for at least five years. If the journal activities are used as part of the money transfer (other than cash movement within Alpaca), and if the journal requests don’t contain the transmitter information, we may contact you.

Instant Deposit (Beta)

As international money transfers can take days usually, under certain conditions, Alpaca supports instant deposit for better user experience. Please contact us for more details.

Post-trade Settlement

We support the post-trade settlement process (higher requirements and restrictions apply). Please contact us for more details.