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Business Banking
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Treasury Sweep Accounts vs. Business Savings: Where Should Your Idle Cash Actually Sit?
Fintechs like Mercury and Rho now offer treasury and sweep accounts yielding 3.7%-5.4% on idle business cash, but treasury balances are typically SIPC-insured up to $500,000 while sweep-network balances stay FDIC-insured — a distinction worth understanding before moving six figures.
Should Your Point-of-Sale App Be Your Bank? A Small-Business Guide to Embedded Finance
Embedded finance grew from a $148 billion market in 2025 to roughly $197 billion in 2026, putting bank accounts, cards, and lending inside software like Shopify, Square, and Toast. Here's how these products work, what the 2024 Synapse collapse revealed about FDIC-insurance gaps, and a practical framework for splitting money between embedded products and a traditional bank.
Business Savings Accounts in 2026: What Idle Cash Actually Costs You
With the Fed holding rates at 3.5%–3.75% through mid-2026, a business keeping $100,000 in a 0% checking account forgoes roughly $3,500–$4,000 a year. This guide compares top business savings APYs (Axos ~3.60%, Bluevine up to ~3.75%, Live Oak, Lili, Grasshopper), explains Insured Cash Sweep coverage beyond the $250,000 FDIC limit, and shows how to split operating, reserve, and surplus cash.
New York's Financial Data Rights Act: What State-Level Open Banking Means for Small Businesses
New York's A10640/S9483 would be the first state law giving small businesses a free, enforceable right to machine-readable bank data via mandated APIs, with $10,000 civil penalties per violation — a state-level backstop while the federal Section 1033 open banking rule remains stalled in court.
The SAFE Banking Act Is Back in 2026: What Cannabis Operators Should Do While Congress Stalls
The SAFE Banking Act was reintroduced in June 2026 with bipartisan Senate and House sponsors, after passing the House seven times since 2019 and dying in the Senate each time. Roughly 70% of U.S. cannabis businesses still operate in cash, paying $2,000–$7,500 in monthly banking fees when they can find a bank at all. Here's what the bill would change, why it keeps failing, and how operators can protect themselves now with cannabis-friendly banks, reduced cash exposure, and audit-ready books under Section 280E.
Axos Financial Buys Arc Technologies: What the Deal Signals for Small Business Banking
Axos Financial is acquiring Arc Technologies, the AI-native cash management platform, in a deal closing July 2026. With large banks approving only 13–15% of small business loans and fintech lenders now originating 32% of them, the acquisition shows why clean, real-time books are becoming your credit application.
Debanking in 2026: What the End of 'Reputational Risk' Means for Your Business Bank Account
Federal regulators eliminated "reputational risk" from bank supervision in 2026 — a joint OCC-FDIC rule effective June 9, an SBA lender audit, FTC warnings to payment processors, and new state disclosure laws now limit when banks can close accounts. Here's who remains exposed and what to do if your business account is frozen or terminated.
Commingling Personal and Business Funds: How One Bad Habit Kills Deductions, Invites Audits, and Pierces Your LLC Shield
Mixing personal and business money in one account can void your LLC's liability shield, get legitimate deductions disallowed for lack of substantiation under IRC Section 162, and turn a routine audit into a full transaction pull. Here's what commingling looks like, why courts and the IRS punish it, and a five-step cleanup plan.
Why Fintechs Are Applying for Bank Charters: The 2026 De Novo Banking Boom Explained
Roughly two dozen fintechs, including Mercury and Upstart, applied for or received OCC national bank charters in 2026 — up from 14 applications in all of 2025 — to escape the sponsor-bank model exposed by the 2024 Synapse collapse and get direct FDIC insurance, lending authority, and payment-rail access.
Where to Park Idle Business Cash in 2026: High-Yield Savings, CDs, and Sweep Accounts
As of mid-2026, competitive business savings accounts pay roughly 3.5%–3.75% APY while the national average sits near 0.4% — a $150,000 idle balance in a 0.01% checking account forgoes about $5,000 a year. A timeline-based framework for placing tax reserves, operating buffers, and balances above the $250,000 FDIC limit into high-yield savings, CD ladders, ICS/CDARS sweep programs, and Treasury money market funds.
Congress Killed the $5 Overdraft Fee Cap. Here's What It Actually Costs Your Business Now
Congress repealed the CFPB's $5 overdraft fee cap via the Congressional Review Act in May 2025, before it ever took effect — large banks now charge $10 to $36 per overdraft and collected over $12 billion in overdraft and NSF revenue in a year. Here's what the repeal means for small business bank accounts, which states are stepping in, and five concrete ways to stop paying the fee.
Positive Pay: The Bank Service That Stops Check Fraud Before It Clears
Positive Pay is a business bank service that matches every check against your issued-check list and flags mismatches the same day, a control most eligible small business accounts still don't use even though checks remain the most-targeted form of payments fraud.