Canvas

The Flow of Money

Who money passes through, from a card swipe or app tap to the Fed and Treasury (US)

Glossary

ACH
Batch electronic payments between bank accounts. Two national operators: the Federal Reserve Banks (FedACH) and EPN; Nacha writes the rules.
Agency MBS
Mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (UMBS) or guaranteed by Ginnie Mae.
Cash sweep
Uninvested brokerage cash moved into deposits at program banks to earn interest and FDIC coverage; Robinhood uses IntraFi.
Central counterparty (CCP)
A clearing house that becomes buyer to every seller and seller to every buyer, guaranteeing settlement if a member defaults.
Central securities depository (DTC)
Holds securities in book-entry form for participants and moves ownership at settlement. DTC custody: $114 trillion (2025).
CHIPS
Bank-owned large-value USD payment system run by The Clearing House; 42 participants and $503.4 trillion in 2025.
Clearing
Matching, netting and guaranteeing trades between the trade and final settlement. NSCC is the central counterparty for US equity trades; OCC for listed options.
Conservatorship
Since September 2008 FHFA has run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as conservator; Treasury backs them via senior preferred stock purchase agreements.
DCO
Derivatives clearing organization registered with the CFTC to clear futures, options on futures or swaps.
Discount window
Fed lending to banks against pledged collateral; primary credit rate is set at the top of the fed funds target range.
FDIC insurance
Deposits are insured to at least $250,000 per depositor per insured bank; securities and crypto are not covered.
Fedwire Funds
The Fed's real-time gross settlement system; each transfer settles individually and is final and irrevocable. Used for large and time-critical payments.
FMU / SIFMU
Financial market utility: a system that clears or settles payments or securities. FSOC has designated 8 as systemically important.
Four-party vs three-party network
Visa and Mastercard connect separate issuers and acquirers (four-party). American Express is itself issuer, network and acquirer (three-party).
Interchange
Fee paid by the merchant's acquirer to the card issuer on each card transaction; networks set default rates.
Introducing broker
Broker that holds the customer relationship but uses a clearing firm to clear, settle and carry accounts. RHF introduces; RHS clears.
Merchant acquirer / processor
Firm that signs merchants for card acceptance, routes authorizations and pays the merchant after settlement, net of fees.
PFOF (payment for order flow)
Payments a wholesale market maker makes to a broker for routing it customer orders. Robinhood Securities passes 80% of what it receives to Robinhood Financial.
Primary dealer
One of 26 firms that trade with the NY Fed for monetary policy and must bid in every Treasury auction.
Prime broker
Dealer that provides financing, clearing and custody to hedge funds; each fund names its prime brokers in SEC Form ADV.
Ranking basis: HFT
No common disclosure. Jane Street, HRT and Citadel Securities are reported 2025 trading revenue; XTX and Optiver are filed figures in GBP/EUR, converted at Fed 2025 averages.
Ranking conflicts: acquirers
Nilson ranked J.P. Morgan first for 2024 by transactions; Fiserv says Nilson ranked it first for 2025; TSG ranks Global Payments (with Worldpay) first by 2025 volume.
Ranking conflicts: hedge funds
With Intelligence (Jun-25 hedge fund AuM) ranks Bridgewater first; its year-end 2025 report puts AQR first; Bloomberg (mid-2026) cites AQR above $140B.
Ranking conflicts: private equity
PEI 300 ranks by PE capital raised over 5 years (KKR first). Dealogic ranks Blackstone first by IB fees paid in 2025.
Reserve balances
Deposits banks hold at Federal Reserve Banks; $2.88 trillion on Sep 30, 2026. The Fed pays interest on them (IORB).
RTP and FedNow
Instant, 24x7 account-to-account payment networks: RTP is run by The Clearing House; FedNow by the Fed (live July 20, 2023).
Rule 606 report
Quarterly SEC-mandated broker disclosure of where customer orders were routed and what the broker was paid per venue.
Self-clearing
A broker that clears and settles its own customers' trades through clearing houses without a third-party clearing firm. Robinhood announced its own clearing system in October 2018.
Settlement
Final exchange of securities and cash. DTC settles net obligations; funds move through settling banks' Fed accounts via the National Settlement Service.
SOMA
System Open Market Account: securities the Fed holds from open market operations, run by the NY Fed Desk for the FOMC.
Sponsor bank / card program
A fintech runs the product but a chartered bank issues the card or holds the deposits (e.g. Coastal for Robinhood Gold Card).
Stablecoin reserves
Assets backing a stablecoin 1:1. USDC: mostly the BlackRock-managed Circle Reserve Fund (custody at BNY), 10-20% bank cash.
T+1
US securities trades settle one business day after the trade date; the SEC compliance date was May 28, 2024.
TGA (Treasury General Account)
The US Treasury's operating cash account at the Fed; $984 billion on Sep 30, 2026. H.4.1 counts it among factors absorbing reserves.
Treasury auction
Single-price auction: noncompetitive bids filled first, then competitive bids from lowest yield up; all pay the highest accepted yield.

Sources

  1. Federal Reserve Board, Large Commercial Banks (insured US-chartered commercial banks), data as of June 30, 2026
  2. Federal Reserve Board, Designated Financial Market Utilities (FSOC designations and supervisory agencies)
  3. Federal Reserve H.4.1, Factors Affecting Reserve Balances, week ended Sep 30, 2026 (Wednesday levels)
  4. Federal Reserve Board, Structure of the Federal Reserve System
  5. Federal Reserve Board, Interest on Reserve Balances
  6. Federal Reserve Board, The Discount Rate / discount window overview
  7. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, System Open Market Account Holdings
  8. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Primary Dealers (list of 26 and role)
  9. Federal Reserve Board, Fedwire Funds Services
  10. Federal Reserve Financial Services, Fedwire Funds Service Annual Statistics (updated Jan 26, 2026)
  11. Federal Reserve Board, Fedwire Securities Service
  12. Federal Reserve Financial Services, Fedwire Securities Service product sheet (Reserve Banks as fiscal agents issue book-entry securities)
  13. Federal Reserve Financial Services, Fedwire Securities Service Annual Statistics (updated Jan 26, 2026)
  14. Federal Reserve Board, FedACH Services (Reserve Banks and EPN are the two national ACH operators)
  15. Federal Reserve Board, Commercial ACH Transactions Processed by the Federal Reserve, Annual Data (updated Feb 26, 2026)
  16. Federal Reserve Board press release, FedNow Service is now live
  17. Federal Reserve Financial Services, FedNow Service Volume and Value Statistics (updated Jul 6, 2026)
  18. Federal Register 80 FR 74832, DTC proposed rule change on acknowledgment of end-of-day net-net settlement balances by Settling Banks
  19. DTCC, End-of-Day Net Funds Settlement
  20. DTCC, Clearing and Settlement Services (NSCC, DTC, FICC)
  21. DTCC press release, DTC surpasses $100 trillion in assets under custody (About DTCC: 2025 processed value and custody)
  22. The Options Clearing Corporation, OCC Annual 2025 and December 2025 Volume
  23. CME Group press release, record annual ADV of 28.1 million contracts in 2025
  24. CFTC, Industry Filings: Derivatives Clearing Organizations (status and registration dates)
  25. The Clearing House, Owner Banks
  26. The Clearing House, CHIPS Annual Statistics (2025 row; dollar columns in thousands)
  27. The Clearing House, RTP Annual Statistics (2025 row)
  28. The Clearing House press release, TCH ACH network continues multiyear growth trend (EPN operated by The Clearing House Payments Company)
  29. The Clearing House, EPN Annual Statistics (2025 row)
  30. CLS Group, CLS welcomes U.S. Bank to CLSSettlement (average daily settled value H1 2025)
  31. Robinhood Markets, Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  32. Robinhood support, Cash sweep program (IntraFi; program banks as of July 1, 2026)
  33. Robinhood Securities, LLC, Rule 606 Held NMS Stocks and Options Order Routing Report, Q2 2026 (FINRA-hosted)
  34. Robinhood Financial LLC, Rule 606 Order Routing Report, Q2 2026 (FINRA-hosted)
  35. InvestmentNews, Robinhood launches self-built custody and clearing service
  36. Coinbase Global, Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  37. Coinbase Help, Depositing with Fedwire (Coinbase Exchange)
  38. Coinbase Help, Instant cashouts (RTP-enabled US bank accounts)
  39. Coinbase, Coinbase Card page (issued by Pathward, N.A., license from Visa U.S.A.)
  40. Cardless, The Coinbase One Card (Amex network; cards issued by First Electronic Bank)
  41. Circle Internet Group, Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  42. Circle Internet Group, Inc., Form 10-Q for quarter ended June 30, 2026
  43. Visa Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year ended Sep 30, 2025
  44. Mastercard Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  45. American Express Co., Form 10-K for FY2025
  46. Capital One Financial Corp., Form 10-K for FY2025
  47. Capital One newsroom, Capital One Completes Acquisition of Discover
  48. The Nilson Report via GlobeNewswire, Top Acquirers of Card Payments at US Merchants (2024 transactions)
  49. The Nilson Report, Largest Merchant Acquirers in the US - 2025 (Issue 1304; tables subscriber-only)
  50. Fiserv press release, Fiserv named top US merchant acquirer by the Nilson Report (2025 data)
  51. Digital Transactions, How top US acquirers ranking changed following acquisitions (2026 TSG Directory of US Merchant Acquirers, 2025 estimated processing volume)
  52. Global Payments 8-K Exhibit 99.1, Global Payments completes acquisition of Worldpay and divestiture of Issuer Solutions
  53. Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  54. Nasdaq, Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  55. Cboe Global Markets, Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  56. CME Group Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  57. Virtu Financial, Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  58. Reuters (Anirban Sen), Jane Street's $40 billion trading haul tops rivals, sources say (via MarketScreener)
  59. Bloomberg (via Bloomberg Government), Citadel Securities nets record $12 billion trading haul
  60. Optiver, Optiver reports robust financial results for 2025
  61. Finance Magnates, XTX Markets revenue rises 43% to GBP 3.93 billion in 2025 (from Companies House filings)
  62. Federal Reserve G.5A Foreign Exchange Rates (Annual), 2025 averages
  63. With Intelligence, Billion Dollar Club Report H1 2025: Top 20 hedge funds (Jun-25 hedge fund AuM)
  64. With Intelligence, Billion Dollar Club: assets hit record $4 trillion high (year-end 2025)
  65. Enterprise AM summarizing Bloomberg Big Take on largest hedge fund firms (mid-2026)
  66. Private Equity International, PEI 300 (2026 edition; PE capital raised Jan 1, 2021 - Dec 31, 2025)
  67. Dealogic / ION Analytics, Quarterly Rankings: IB Revenue, Full Year 2025
  68. SEC Form ADV, Bridgewater Associates, LP (CRD 105129), Schedule D 7.B.(1) prime brokers
  69. SEC Form ADV, AQR Capital Management, LLC (CRD 111883), Schedule D 7.B.(1) prime brokers
  70. SEC Form ADV, Millennium Management LLC (CRD 158117), Schedule D 7.B.(1) prime brokers
  71. SEC Form ADV, Elliott Investment Management L.P. (CRD 307151), Schedule D 7.B.(1) prime brokers
  72. SEC Form ADV (exempt reporting adviser), TCI Fund Management Limited (CRD 269954), Schedule D 7.B.(1) prime brokers
  73. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Form 10-K for FY2025
  74. The Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Form 10-K for FY2025
  75. Morgan Stanley, Form 10-K for FY2025
  76. Citigroup Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  77. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  78. Bank of America Corp., Form 10-K for FY2025
  79. TreasuryDirect, How Auctions Work
  80. Bureau of the Fiscal Service, About Us
  81. Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Daily Treasury Statement (operating cash held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York)
  82. FDIC, Deposit Insurance
  83. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, About Us
  84. SEC, Mission
  85. FINRA, About FINRA
  86. CFTC, About the Commission
  87. SEC press release 2024-62 on the T+1 settlement cycle compliance date
  88. Fannie Mae, Form 10-K for FY2025
  89. Freddie Mac, Form 10-K for FY2025
  90. Ginnie Mae, Remaining Principal Balance (RPB) Summary, March 2026
  91. Bankrate, Largest mortgage lenders (Bankrate analysis of 2025 HMDA data with LendingPatterns)
  92. UWM Holdings Corp., Form 10-K for FY2025
  93. Rocket Companies, Inc., Form 10-K for FY2025
  94. Experian Insights, Why more borrowers are refinancing their vehicles (State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q2 2025 lender shares)

Data as of 2026-10-07, version 1.

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The Flow of Money: every entity and its relations

Retail actors

Front door: brokers, crypto, card programs

Card networks and merchant acquiring

Execution: market makers and exchanges

Clearing, settlement and payment rails

Banks

Mortgage and auto lending

Federal Reserve and US Treasury

Regulators

Capital markets: IB, hedge funds, PE