On September 17, 2024, the FDIC board approved a notice of proposed rulemaking that would increase recordkeeping obligations for bank deposits received from third party, non-bank companies that accept those deposits on behalf of consumers and businesses.  The FDIC announcement is here; a related statement by FDIC Chairperson Gruenberg is here.

Agency officials said that non-banks often deposit funds together into a single custodial account. Those accounts may hold funds of several thousand consumers or businesses, and the bank may not be able to determine the individual owners of funds in the custodial accounts.

The FDIC said that recent events have underscored issues surrounding arrangements at Insured Depository Institutions (IDIs). The agency cited the bankruptcy of Synapse Financial Technologies Inc., whose collapse has affected the ability of consumers to access their funds held at IDIs in pooled accounts for several months.

Under the proposed rule, IDIs that hold custodial accounts with transactional features must maintain certain records related to the accounts.

Those records would identify the beneficial owners of the custodial deposit account, the balance that can be attributed to each beneficial owner, and the ownership category in which the beneficial owner holds the deposited funds.

In addition to an annual certification of compliance, an IDI would be required to prepare and submit to the FDIC and its primary federal regulator an annual report that contains:

  • Any material changes to the IDI’s information technology systems that are relevant to the requirements of the proposed rule;
  • A list of the account holders that maintain custodial deposit accounts with transactional features subject to the rule, as well as the total balance of those custodial deposit accounts, and the total number of beneficial owners;
  • The results of the IDI’s testing of its implementation of the recordkeeping requirements; and
  • The results of any independent validation of records maintained by third parties.

Comments on the proposed rule are due 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

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