The standard limit: $250,000 per bank
The FDIC insures deposits up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category. If your money is in one bank and that bank fails, the FDIC makes you whole up to $250,000. Anything above that at a single bank is uninsured.
For a personal account this is plenty. For a business holding operating cash, payroll, and taxes, $250,000 can be tight — which is why you see accounts advertising much higher coverage.
How networks extend coverage to $3M
The trick isn't a special exemption from the $250,000 rule — it's using the rule many times. Some providers participate in a program-bank (or 'sweep') network: your deposit is automatically spread across multiple FDIC-insured partner banks, with up to $250,000 placed at each.
Twelve partner banks at $250,000 each is $3M of total FDIC coverage, all from one account you actually log into. The insurance is still the ordinary FDIC insurance — it's just multiplied by the number of banks holding slices of your balance.
What this means with Holdings
Holdings is a fintech; banking is provided by i3 Bank, Member FDIC. Deposits are insured up to $3M by spreading balances across a network of program banks, each FDIC-insured, at the standard $250,000-per-bank limit.
You get one account and one balance to manage, while the coverage behind it is distributed across multiple insured banks. As with any program like this, coverage is subject to the network's terms and the standard FDIC rules.
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Frequently asked questions
Isn't FDIC insurance only $250,000?
Per bank, yes — $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category. Higher advertised limits like $3M come from spreading your deposit across multiple partner banks, each insured up to $250,000, so the total adds up.
Is $3 million of coverage real FDIC insurance?
Yes, it's the same FDIC insurance — just applied across many banks at once. Each partner bank holds up to $250,000 of your money and insures it normally. The total is the sum of those per-bank limits, subject to the program's terms.
How does Holdings offer up to $3M in FDIC coverage?
Holdings provides banking through i3 Bank, Member FDIC, and uses a network of program banks to spread deposits at $250,000 per bank, adding up to $3M in total FDIC coverage — all managed as one account.