FBO account
An FBO ("for benefit of") account is a custodial bank account a company opens to hold funds that belong to its customers, titled along the lines of "Platform, FBO its customers." The platform operates the account, the customers own the funds, and a sub-ledger tracks each customer’s balance inside the pool.
By Nikhil Srinivasan, Founder & CEOLast updated July 2026
FBO structures are the standard way fintechs have pooled customer funds: one master account at the bank, many underlying owners, each customer’s balance tracked in a virtual sub-account on the platform’s ledger. Everything then depends on records — the sub-ledger must stay perfectly reconciled to the bank balance, ownership records determine whether deposit insurance passes through, and regulators have tightened scrutiny of custodial accounts after fintech failures where sub-ledgers could not establish whose money was whose.
Infinite takes the per-customer path instead: each customer gets a unique, individually titled demand deposit account through chartered, FDIC-insured partner banks, so ownership lives in account records rather than a platform’s spreadsheet — with the network handling onboarding, screening, and reconciliation.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns the money in an FBO account?
The underlying customers. The platform is the custodian operating the account, and its records must identify each owner and balance — those records are what insurance analysis and failure tracing depend on. Pass-through deposit insurance
Is an FBO account FDIC-insured?
FDIC insurance covers the failure of the insured bank, and coverage may extend through to the underlying owners when the FDIC’s pass-through conditions are met — custodial titling disclosed, each owner and balance identified in the records. Pass-through deposit insurance
What is the alternative to an FBO structure?
Individually titled per-customer accounts. Infinite issues a unique, fully managed DDA for each customer through its partner banks, so platforms get bank-grade account structure without pooling customer funds in one account. Third-party funds flow
See how it works on the network.
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