What is an FBO account?

An FBO account is a bank account titled “for the benefit of” your customers. The bank holds the funds. Your ledger says who owns which part. The title is a custody structure, not a product feature. Without a per-customer book, the FBO is only a pooled pot with a legal name on it.

How does an FBO account work?

Customers pay into one bank account, or into virtual numbers that land there. The bank’s customer is often the bank itself or a program sponsor. You are the record-keeper. Each inbound credit must become a wallet credit. Each payout must leave the matching wallet before it leaves the pot.

FBO vs omnibus

Omnibus describes the pooling. FBO describes who the pot is held for. Most fintech pots are both: one account, many beneficial owners. The ledger work is the same. The banking contract is what changes if you need the FBO title.

What is the ledger’s job?

Prove at any time that the sum of wallets, plus your own accounts, minus inflight items, equals the bank. If you pay from the pot without a wallet debit, you spent someone else’s money. The bank statement will still look fine.

How it works with Blnk

Blnk does not open the FBO. Your bank does. Blnk keeps the pot and the wallets that live inside it.

Treat the bank pot as @OmnibusUSD_FBO. Credit a customer wallet when you know who paid. Debit that wallet before a payout leaves the pot. See internal balances.

await blnk.Transactions.create({
  precise_amount: 25000,
  precision: 100,
  reference: 'fbo_in_20260816_001',
  currency: 'USD',
  source: '@OmnibusUSD_FBO',
  destination: 'customer_wallet_id',
  description: 'Deposit to FBO',
  meta_data: {
    bank_txn_id: '20260816DDA001',
    virtual_account: '900123456789',
    customer_id: 'cus_8f21a4',
  },
});