Latest
08
Jul
What Are Brokered Deposits?
Brokered deposits fund a significant portion of the US banking system — yet most people in banking only have a vague sense of how they work. Here's what they are, how they enter the bank, why they're called hot money, and what regulators do about them.
8 min read
01
Jul
SOX Compliance in Banking
After Enron, Congress rewrote the rules. For banks, SOX compliance starts not in finance — but in the IT systems that produce every number on the page.
9 min read
02
Jun
What is ACH?
ACH processes over 30 billion transactions and $80 trillion annually — payroll, bill pay, tax refunds, and most recurring payments in the US run on it. Here's how the batch processing system actually works, from ODFI to RDFI, SEC codes to return codes.
7 min read
02
Jun
What is Regulation CC?
When a customer deposits a check, federal law governs exactly when the bank must make those funds available — and how long it can hold them. Regulation CC sets the rules, the exceptions, and the disclosures. Here's how it works.
7 min read
02
Jun
What is Open Banking?
Your bank holds your financial data — but open banking says it belongs to you. Here's how the APIs, consent frameworks, and data aggregators behind open banking actually work, and why the US is only now catching up to the UK and Europe.
7 min read
01
Jun
What is RTP
ACH was built in 1972. Fedwire in 1918. RTP is the first new core payment infrastructure built in the US in over 40 years — and it settles in seconds, around the clock, with immediate finality. Here's how it works.
7 min read
07
Apr
How Zelle Works
Zelle moved $800 billion in 2023 — more than Venmo and Cash App combined. It's free, it's instant, and it's irreversible. Here's how it actually works, why the money arrives in minutes, and why you can't get it back once it's gone.
6 min read
07
Apr
How the Mastercard Network Works
Mastercard and Visa look identical to consumers. Under the hood they run separate networks, separate rules, and separate fee structures. Here's how Banknet works — and where Mastercard diverges from Visa
6 min read
07
Apr
How the Visa Network Works
Visa doesn't issue cards, lend money, or approve transactions. It runs the highway that connects your bank to the merchant's bank — and processes 65,000 transactions per second doing it. Here's how VisaNet actually works
6 min read
07
Apr
What is Escheatment?
Billions in forgotten bank accounts are transferred to state governments every year. Escheatment is the legal process behind it — and for banks, it's a mandatory compliance obligation with strict deadlines, multi-state complexity, and significant penalties for getting it wrong.
6 min read