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What is a Cash Sweep?
Nicole Madison
Nicole Madison
A cash sweep is an automatic bank process. Through this process, funds are moved from a bank deposit account to an investment account or from an investment account to a deposit account. For a cash sweep, the funds can be transferred between accounts at the same institution or from an account at one institution to an account at another. Usually this is accomplished daily and can be arranged for a portion of the funds in either account or the entire balance of the account.
In order to automatically transfer funds from a deposit account to an interest bearing account, such as a mutual fund account, a person may set up a cash sweep. The funds in these accounts are transferred based on the customer’s specifications. This means the customer can specify that all of the funds present in either account are transferred each day or he can request the transfer of only a small portion of it. For example, a person could have the excess balance on his investment account transferred to a deposit account.
In most cases, a cash sweep happens once per day. This daily schedule applies no matter which account is involved. A bank will perform a cash sweep from its customer’s account once per day, and the investment account manager handles transfers once a day as well.
Cash sweep arrangements are often useful for account holders, including businesses, who need access to a large amount of funds without having to wait a significant amount of time. While a person or business in this situation could hold his money in a checking account, he would not typically earn as much on it as he could with an investment account. As such, a person or business in this position usually gets the best of both worlds with a cash sweep: significant interest that allows his money to grow and quick access to his funds when he needs them.
Cash sweeps were initially instituted by banks as an effort to deal with non-bank competition that paid interest and offered features similar to those available via deposit accounts. Since banks could not offer interest on checking accounts at the time, they created cash sweeps to ensure that their customers could still bank with them yet easily move their money into accounts that were interest bearing. Today, there are interest-bearing checking accounts, but they usually pay far less interest than investment accounts.
Nicole Madison
Nicole’s thirst for knowledge inspired her to become a SmartCapitalMind writer, and she focuses primarily on topics such as homeschooling, parenting, health, science, and business. When not writing or spending time with her four children, Nicole enjoys reading, camping, and going to the beach.
Learn more...
Nicole Madison
Nicole’s thirst for knowledge inspired her to become a SmartCapitalMind writer, and she focuses primarily on topics such as homeschooling, parenting, health, science, and business. When not writing or spending time with her four children, Nicole enjoys reading, camping, and going to the beach.
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![Through a cash sweep, funds are moved from a bank deposit account to an investment account or from an investment account to a deposit account.]()
By: Vladislav KochelaevsThrough a cash sweep, funds are moved from a bank deposit account to an investment account or from an investment account to a deposit account.
Discussion Comments
I am looking to start a cash sweep account with my bank. For anyone who has had experience with this type of account, what should I look for from my bank? Are there certain questions I should ask about having the money transferred?
Maybe most importantly, will I be charged anything for this service. My guess is that with the advent of the internet, electronic deposits make this process almost cost-free.
@kentuckycat - That's a very good question. I started a sweep account several years ago, and I was not familiar with the practice at that time.
The way it works is that you put money into your primary account, and the bank will automatically transfer the money into a different account where it will collect higher interest.
Like the article mentions, this can be the entire amount of an account or just a portion. In my case, I transfer all of the money over, and then when I write a check or withdraw money, that amount is transferred out of the investment account to cover the check or withdraw.
It's a very beneficial system that I don't believe is publicized quite enough.
One thing I don't quite understand here is: Does the cash sweep originate with the bank or with the account holder? For example, if I deposit money into my account, does the cash sweep happen when I move the money into an investment account, or does the bank automatically move my money into their own investment account?
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