Glossary · Running the business
Rolling reserve
- Also called
- reserve
- processing reserve
- holdback
What it means
In a prop firm, a rolling reserve is a standard term of a high-risk merchant account. The acquirer keeps a share of each day's settlement for a fixed number of days, and releases each day's amount when its holding period ends. Both the percentage and the period are set by the acquirer.
During growth, the reserve can tie up a large amount of cash precisely when payouts start to rise, because reserve releases lag sales by months.
Some acquirers ask instead for an up-front fixed reserve or a combination. Terms can be renegotiated with a clean processing history.
Related terms
Read these next.
High-risk merchant account
Payout reserve
Chargeback
Payment processor
Payout ratio
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