Frequently Asked Questions

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ICS, or IntraFi Cash Service, and CDARS have been thoroughly tested (with many billions of dollars) and have been designed so as to comply with every relevant FDIC requirement. Since its inception, thousands of depositors have successfully submitted funds for placement through IntraFi's deposit placement services.

Use of these services makes it possible for depositors to gain access to multiple millions of dollars of FDIC insurance on funds that are placed in demand deposit accounts, money market deposit accounts, CDs, or any combination of these account types. And, no depositor has ever lost a penny of FDIC-insured deposits.

The services are offered by IntraFi, a trusted fintech provider chosen by more than 3,000 banks across the nation, and has received an exclusive endorsement from the American Bankers Association.

The FDIC insures up to $250,000 of a customer’s deposit accounts in a given insurable capacity at an FDIC-insured depository institution. Banks that offer IntraFi's services are members of IntraFi’s network of financial institutions. When your funds are placed through the services, they are divided into amounts under the standard FDIC maximum and placed with other network members—each an FDIC-insured institution. This makes your deposit eligible for FDIC insurance at each member bank. By working directly with one network member, you can access insurance through many.

Funds placed through ICS and CDARS are deposited only in FDIC-insured institutions. Your bank acts as custodian for your deposits placed, and the subcustodian for the deposits is the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon), the largest custodian in the world with $43 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration and $1.92 trillion in assets under management.¹

Unique to CDARS, you as a depositor can obtain a confirmation of records maintained by BNY Mellon as subcustodian in order to reconcile those records with the statements received from your financial institution. At any time, as often as desired, you as a depositor can obtain a certified statement from BNY Mellon that confirms the exact amount of your CDs, including principal balance and accrued interest, for each FDIC-insured institution that issues a CD through the CDARS service. You can submit a request for the certified statement, along with BNY Mellon's processing fee, through your financial institution. BNY Mellon will send the certified statement directly to you or to another party designated by you, such as an auditor.

Through IntraFi's services, funds are placed in deposit accounts at members of IntraFi’s network of financial institutions, and those network members provide you with access to the additional FDIC insurance coverage. Working directly with just one bank, you can access coverage through many FDIC-insured institutions.

Your confidential information remains protected; your relationship remains between you and your financial institution.

When institutions that use ICS and CDARS swap deposits on a dollar-for-dollar basis, the same amount of funds placed through the network returns to your financial institution. As a result, the total amount of your original deposit can remain with your financial institution and be used for local lending. (This applies only when placing funds on a reciprocal basis.)

Since the creation of the FDIC more than eight decades ago, depositors have always had the option of depositing funds at multiple FDIC-insured banks to gain access to deposit insurance coverage in excess of the standard single-bank insurance amount, which is now $250,000. The FDIC has always known of this practice and, at times, has even encouraged it. Deposit placement services, such as those offered by IntraFi, help depositors to achieve the same familiar result more easily and with added benefits, such as providing banks the opportunity to promote local lending through reciprocal deposits that the depositor’s bank receives in return for deposits placed at other banks.

The FDIC routinely acknowledges that deposit placement services can be used to provide access to expanded deposit insurance coverage. For example, in a 2016 “Frequently Asked Questions” document, the FDIC specifically described how a participating bank can place funds at other participating banks through a bank network to give its customer full insurance coverage on a deposit in excess of $250,000. Moreover, in 2018, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law. Section 202 of the Act defines reciprocal deposits and, subject to statutory limitations, provides that certain reciprocal deposits are deemed not to have been obtained by or through a deposit broker. The FDIC subsequently issued regulations implementing the Act’s requirements.

Some banks receiving deposits placed through an IntraFi service have failed during IntraFi’s history; every resulting claim for deposit insurance has been paid in full by the FDIC.

ICS and CDARS have been thoroughly tested, and reciprocal deposit placement services are recognized both in the FDIC regulations and in state statutes and regulations throughout the United States.

When a network member has failed, the bank's deposits placed using IntraFi's services in most cases have been transferred to a healthy institution—the FDIC's preferred method for handling bank failures. In cases where the FDIC has been unable to find a healthy institution willing to accept such a transfer, it has arranged for the payment of the insured principal and accrued interest to the depositors. This payment has usually occurred in a matter of days.

Please go to http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/index.html to learn more about FDIC insurance.

Check with your financial institution to see if it offers IntraFi's services, or visit our Bank Locator page to find a local one that does.