Bank transfers and Align

Sempo is not a bank. When you pay in from one, a partner receives the transfer, converts it to USDC and delivers it to your address. This page is how that works.

The partner

The bank side of Sempo is run by Align: your account details, receiving a transfer, converting it to USDC, and one day paying out to a bank. In its own words, Align lets businesses and individuals move money between stablecoins and fiat currencies. Sempo integrates with Align and acts on what it reports; Align provides the account details and does the conversion.

Your account details

After you are verified, Align opens account details in your name: an account and routing number for dollars, an IBAN and BIC for euros. They appear on your home screen and under Deposit. They are yours to give to an employer, a client or your own bank.

Occasionally a set of details for a currency needs an extra approval on Align’s side before it can be opened; when that is the case the home screen says the details are coming, and they appear when the approval does.

A deposit, step by step

  1. You send a transfer from your bank to your account details.
  2. Align receives it, and tells Sempo. The row appears under Activity as Pending.
  3. Align converts the amount to USDC, less the route’s fee.
  4. The USDC is delivered to your Ethereum address. The row becomes Completed, your balance moves, and you get an email.

Sempo learns about each step in two ways. Align notifies us the moment a transfer changes, and Sempo also asks every couple of minutes while your account is open, so nothing is missed if a notification is.

Verification

The identity check in Verify your identity is Align’s: it opens in a new tab because it runs on their verification partner’s pages, and Sempo reads the result rather than the documents. Approval is per currency and route, which is the reason a set of account details can wait on an extra check after you are otherwise verified.

Routes and fees

Each way money moves between a bank and USDC is a route: ACH and wire for US dollars, SEPA for euros, UAE FTS for dirhams. Each route carries a fee, a percentage of the amount with a minimum per transfer. The minimum is what to notice on a small transfer, where it can be the larger part of the cost. The current schedule is on the fees page, and a withdrawal will always show its fee before you confirm.

What Align knows about you

Your name, email and address, the identity documents you submitted, the bank account details it has opened for you, and every transfer through them. That is the record its business requires it to keep. Sempo keeps its own record of which USDC address each person’s transfers are delivered to, which Align asks of us. Neither holds your key.

Align’s terms

Because Align handles the bank side, using it through Sempo means agreeing to Align’s terms as well as ours. They are published by Align, and worth reading before your first transfer: