ACH Relationships API #

With the ACH Relationship API you can list, create and cancel ACH relationships with your end customers.

Find Alpaca’s wiring instructions here

The ACH Relationship Object #

Sample Object #

{
  "id": "794c3c51-71a8-4186-b5d0-247b6fb4045e",
  "account_id": "9d587d7a-7b2c-494f-8ad8-5796bfca0866",
  "created_at": "2021-04-08T23:01:53.35743328Z",
  "updated_at": "2021-04-08T23:01:53.35743328Z",
  "status": "QUEUED",
  "account_owner_name": "John Doe",
  "bank_account_type": "CHECKING",
  "bank_account_number": "123456789abc",
  "bank_routing_number": "121000358",
  "nickname": "Bank of America Checking"
}

Attributes #

Attribute	Type	Notes
`id`	string	UUID
`account_id`	string	UUID
`created_at`	string/timedate
`updated_at`	string/timedate
`status`	ENUM.AchStatus	`QUEUED`, `APPROVED`, `PENDING`
`account_owner_name`	string	Name of the account owner
`bank_account_type`	string	Must be `CHECKING` or `SAVINGS`
`bank_account_number`	string/number
`bank_routing_number`	string/number
`nickname`	string
`processor_token`	string	Processor token endpoints are used to create tokens that are then sent to a Plaid partner for use in a Plaid integration
`correspondent_code`	string
`approval_method`	ENUM.ACHApprovalMethod	`MICRO_DEPOSIT`, `PLAID`, `PLAID_MICRO`, `CORRESPONDENT`, `PLAID_PARTNER`
`plaid_institution`	string
`plaid_verification_status`	ENUM.VerificationStatus	`automatically_verified`, `manually_verified`, `pending_automatic_verification`, `pending_manual_verification`, `verification_expired`
`account_mask`	string

Creating an ACH Relationship #

POST /v1/accounts/{account_id}/ach_relationships

Request #

Sample Request #

{
  "account_owner_name": "John Doe",
  "bank_account_type": "CHECKING",
  "bank_account_number": "32131231abc",
  "bank_routing_number": "121000358",
  "nickname": "Bank of America Checking"
}

Parameters #

Parameter	Type	Required	Notes
`account_owner_name`	string	Required
`bank_account_type`	string	Required	Must be `CHECKING` or `SAVINGS`
`bank_account_number`	string	Required	In sandbox, this must be valid format
`bank_routing_number`	string	Required	In sandbox, this must be valid format
`nickname`	string	Optional
`processor_token`	string	Optional	All other parameters are not needed if providing a plaid processor token.
`instant`	boolean	Optional

Response #

If successful, will return 200 code with a newly created ACH Relationship entity.

Error Codes #

400 - Bad Request

401 - Not Authorized

Invalid credentials

409 - Conflict

The account already has an active relationship

Retrieving ACH Relationships for Account #

GET /v1/accounts/{account_id}/ach_relationships

Request #

Parameters #

Attribute	Type	Requirement	Notes
`statuses`	string	Optional	Multiple statuses (comma separated) are supported.

Response #

Returns a list of ACH relationships.

Deleting an ACH Relationship #

DELETE /v1/accounts/{account_id}/ach_relationships/{relationship_id}

Request #

N/A

Response #

204 - Success (No Content)

Error Codes #

400 - Invalid Request Body

account_id or relationship_id invalid

401 - Unauthorized

404 - Relationship Not Found

Plaid Integration for Bank Transfers #

We have integrated with Plaid to allow you to seamlessly link your Plaid account to Alpaca. The integration will allow your end-users to verify their account instantly through Plaid’s trusted front-end module.

Leveraging this allows you to generate Plaid Processor Tokens on behalf of your end-users, which allows Alpaca to immediately retrieve a user’s bank details in order to deposit or withdraw funds on the Alpaca platform.

You can utilize your Plaid account and activate the Alpaca integration within the Plaid dashboard.

The integration requires Plaid API Keys

Obtaining a Plaid Processor Token #

A Plaid processor token is used to enable Plaid integrations with partners. After a customer connects their bank using Plaid Link, a processor token can be generated at any time. Please refer to the Plaid Processor Token using Alpaca page for creating a token and additional details.

Exchange token

curl -X POST https://sandbox.plaid.com/item/public_token/exchange \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "client_id": "PLAID_CLIENT_ID",
    "secret": "PLAID_SECRET",
    "public_token": "PUBLIC_TOKEN"
  }'

Create a processor token for a specific account id.

curl -X POST https://sandbox.plaid.com/processor/token/create \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
  "client_id": "PLAID_CLIENT_ID",
  "secret": "PLAID_SECRET",
  "access_token": "ACCESS_TOKEN",
  "account_id": "ACCOUNT_ID",
  "processor": "alpaca"
}'

For a valid request, the API will return a JSON response similar to:

{ 
  "processor_token": "processor-sandbox-0asd1-a92nc",
  "request_id": "m8MDnv9okwxFNBV"
}

Processor Token Flow #

processor-token-flow

End-user links bank account using Plaid.
Plaid returns a public token to you.
You will submit a public token to Plaid in exchange for an access token.
You will submit access token to Plaid’s /processor/token/create endpoint and receive Processor Token (specific to Alpaca).
You will make a call to the processor endpoint to pass Alpaca the processor token, to initiate the payment. To pass the processor token use the ACH relationships endpoint (Link).

Sample Request #

POST /v1/accounts/{account_id}/ach_relationships

{
    "processor_token": "processor-sandbox-161c86dd-d470-47e9-a741-d381c2b2cb6f"
}

Sample response #

{
  "id": "794c3c51-71a8-4186-b5d0-247b6fb4045e",
  "account_id": "9d587d7a-7b2c-494f-8ad8-5796bfca0866",
  "created_at": "2021-04-08T23:01:53.35743328Z",
  "updated_at": "2021-04-08T23:01:53.35743328Z",
  "status": "QUEUED",
  "account_owner_name": "John Doe",
  "nickname": "Bank of America Checking"
}

Alpaca makes a call to Plaid to retrieve the Account and Routing number* using the processor token.
Alpaca saves the processor token and account and routing number internally for future use. Alpaca uses account information for NACHA file creation and processing.

*Can include Auth, Identity, Balance info - if the broker API wants to initiate a transfer, we use the transfer endpoint.

Disclosures

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