Funds in Transit

Funds in transit are money that has left one side of a transfer and not yet arrived at the other, so it belongs to neither balance at that moment. Every payment has this state; what varies is how long it lasts and how visible it is made. On the way in, a deposit can be authorised without being settled, and firms differ on which of those two events credits the account. Crediting on authorisation makes funds tradable sooner and leaves the firm carrying the risk that settlement fails; crediting on settlement is slower and removes it. On the way out, a payment marked as sent by the firm has not arrived — it has entered the payment chain, and the remaining time belongs to that chain rather than to the broker. The point worth carrying is that in-transit money is not idle in a useful sense: it cannot be traded, it cannot be recalled by asking the firm, and it will not appear in a balance until it lands. Where it takes noticeably longer than expected, the question that gets an answer is which leg it is on, since the firm can evidence its own leg precisely and the rest only by reference.