ACH transfer to brokerage

API Support
1

I am trying to make an ACH transfer from a customer’s bank account to his brokerage account. The brokerage (Interactive Brokers) has its own account and routing number, and each customer account has his own account number.

How can I make an ACH transfer to this account? I could create an unverified funding source with the brokerage account and routing numbers and then put the customer name and account number in the “name” field, but would Dwolla handle this correctly?

2

Hi @Eric_Rubio, For facilitating transactions to/from your users are you looking to leverage white label Customer accounts or existing Dwolla Accounts? Depending on which solution you are looking to integrate with will change the steps involved leading up to initiating a transfer from a customer’s bank account to his brokerage account. Are you looking to send money from a user(Investor?) to your own Dwolla account(which represents the brokerage)?

It is important to note that accounts(either Dwolla accounts or white label Customer accounts) and funding sources are two different resources. In short, each customer account has a funding source and this funding source(bank account) his it’s own account and routing number. The funding source(bank account) belongs to the account.

3

Hi @spencer, thanks for your reply. I am trying send money from a White Label customer account to another White Label customer account. The issue I was having is that the receiving funding source had to include an account number and routing number, in addition to some extra data (another account number). I was told that I could do this by adding metadata to the Transfer, so I think that will work for me.

1 Like
4

I’m trying to do the same, was this resolved, if so, I would love to know how to do this.

Thanks
Mohammad

5

Hi @Mohammad_Mithani, It looks like Eric’s use case involved sending bank to bank transfers between two different users. The receiving Customer’s funding source(bank account) needed extra data that could be tied to that resource to be used by his application. Eric was able to add additional data to the Transfer itself instead of to the bank funding source attached to the receiving Customer with the use of metadata.

Metadata can be attached to a transfer between two different Customer accounts and be used by your app for various reasons. For example, additional information that can be used by your app to correlate it to something your app knows/uses separate of the Dwolla API.

POST https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/transfers 
Accept: application/vnd.dwolla.v1.hal+json
Authorization: Bearer P0zAsEF0ksmg8p6l9lQrd3Ab0H5H13pLIwtK2A690si0oU94Cm
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "_links": {
        "source": {
            "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/707177c3-bf15-4e7e-b37c-55c3898d9bf4"
        },
        "destination": {
            "href": "https://api-sandbox.dwolla.com/funding-sources/4a4f7380-c91c-4757-932b-cb44a8a396ec"
        }
    },
    "amount": {
        "currency": "USD",
        "value": "142.00"
    },
    "metadata": {
        "receivingAccountId": "98347578965"
    }
}
6

Hi Eric, how did that work out for you? Were you able to transfer money from the customer’s bank account to their brokerage account? Could you share a summary of the process which led to a successful transfer? Also, do you need to use a brokerage’s API to transfer $ into a brokerage account or only Dwolla’s API?

7

Hi Spencer, Does Dwolla API permit transfer from a customer’s bank account to their brokerage investment account (specifically an account at a brokerage firm used for investing – not a cash management account). Example: if a customer wanted to transfer money from their PNC bank account to their Fidelity brokerage investment-only (not cash management) account. Does a bank to brokerage transfer require the developer to connect with the brokerage’s API? or is Dwolla sufficient? I appreciate your insight. Thank you!

8

Addressed Krystal’s questions in a different thread. Here’s my response below:

In order to create a transfer to and from a bank account within Dwolla, we only need you to integrate with the Dwolla API to add Customer accounts and funding-sources to create transactions.

As for Investment accounts, at most financial institutions those type of accounts have routing and account numbers. Home banks can receive credits+debits, some only allow credits, and some block all activity all together. It’s up to the discretion of the FI. Dwolla can’t really make a determination, but if you’re sure that the account can transact over the ACH network, then you should be able to add it to Dwolla via the API and send funds to it. You would just need to supply the Account and Routing numbers of that investment account in order to add it as a funding-source to your Dwolla Customer.

Hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any questions!

9

@shreya That post seems to be private. What was the answer? Can Dwolla send money to brokerage investment accounts?

10

Hi @nucks , I updated the reply above to include the information Shreya responded with regarding this question. Let us know if you have any follow up questions after reviewing!

11

Hello, Would love to know if anyone successfully enabled "Me to Me’ ACH transfers between someones Deposit Account (i.e Wells Fargo Checking) and their Brokerage Account (I.e Fidelity). If so, what institutions did it work for?