---
title: "FBO account"
description: "A custodial bank account titled \"for the benefit of\" a company’s customers — one pooled account holding funds the platform manages on their behalf."
reviewedBy: "Nikhil Srinivasan, Founder & CEO"
updated: "July 2026"
canonical: "https://infinite.net/learn/glossary/fbo-account"
---

# 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.

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](https://infinite.net/learn/glossary/pass-through-deposit-insurance.md)

### 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](https://infinite.net/learn/glossary/pass-through-deposit-insurance.md)

### 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](https://infinite.net/funds-flow/third-party)

## Where it fits on Infinite

- [Deposit Account](https://infinite.net/platform/deposit-account)
- [Third-party funds flow](https://infinite.net/funds-flow/third-party)

## See also

- [Pooled account](https://infinite.net/learn/glossary/pooled-account.md)
- [Pass-through deposit insurance](https://infinite.net/learn/glossary/pass-through-deposit-insurance.md)
- [Virtual account](https://infinite.net/learn/glossary/virtual-account.md)