Within days of the fall of Silicon Valley Bank, challenger small-business banking provider Mercury, was in market with a timely solution to deposit insurance stress. The new Mercury Vault (company announcement, 13 March 2023) includes $5M of FDIC insurance (achieved by shipping deposits in excess of $250k to a network of 20 banks).

And for businesses with even more cash, Mercury puts it to work in Vanguard and/or Morgan Stanley money market funds (notably under the clients’ name) currently earning up to 4.84% (as of 3 March 2023). So even if there is a failure at Mercury’s bank partner (Evolve or Choice), there would be no deposit losses or even major inconvenience (see note 1).

Mercury remains fee free (see note 2) for all customers regardless of balance level. However, Treasury services which include the Vault and money-market options, require a minimum balance of $250k. And the Morgan Stanley fund option requires a minimum of $25 million!

For more Mercury coverage see our previous posts.


Notes:

  1. It’s possible that if one or more of the 20 banks failed, up to $250k could be frozen for a few days while the Feds took over that bank.
  2. The only fee, which applies to foreign transactions only, is a 1% fee on currency exchanges.
  3. Full disclosure: Mercury is a sponsor of the FintechLabs challenger bank content which can impact where they are positioned on the site. They have no control over this post or any editorial decisions. While we do not earn a commission, we do have an arrangement that benefits readers. Using this link new customers earn a $250 bonus after spending $10k on their new Mercury debit card.