# What is Rolling reserve?

> A rolling reserve is a percentage of each card settlement an acquirer holds back for a set period to cover future chargebacks and refunds, then releases on a rolling basis.

- Source: https://pipvalley.com/glossary/rolling-reserve
- Publisher: PipValley - web design studio for prop trading firms
- Updated: 2026-10-03

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.

## Why it matters

Rolling reserves are money you have earned but cannot spend, and they need to sit in your cash-flow model next to payout liability. Ignore them and a fast-growing firm can run short of cash for payouts while its revenue looks healthy.