Form FR 2900, formally the Report of Transaction Accounts, Other Deposits, and Vault Cash, is the weekly deposit report that qualifying depository institutions submit to the Federal Reserve so the Fed can build the M1 and M2 monetary aggregates.1Federal Reserve. FR 2900 (Savings and Loans) – Report of Deposits and Vault Cash2Federal Reserve Board. Reserve Requirements3Federal Register. Regulation D: Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions (2026)
Who Has To File
Commercial banks, savings banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, and comparable deposit-taking institutions must file FR 2900 if their gross liquid deposits and small time deposits meet or exceed the Board’s annual deposit reporting limit. That threshold is currently set at $1.4 billion.4Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The Facts Behind Your Figures: FR 2900 Report of Deposits and Vault Cash
U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks, along with Edge Act and agreement corporations, file regardless of deposit size.5Federal Register. Agency Information Collection Activities: Announcement of Board Approval Under Delegated Authority Each of these entities files its own report. An Edge Act subsidiary cannot be folded into a parent bank’s submission.6Federal Reserve. FR 2900 Instructions
The Board evaluates the reporting panel each July using a full year of deposit data ending in the first quarter. Institutions added to or removed from the panel are notified in September.4Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The Facts Behind Your Figures: FR 2900 Report of Deposits and Vault Cash The operative filing requirement itself is set out at 12 C.F.R. § 204.3.7eCFR. 12 CFR Part 204 – Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions (Regulation D)
What You Report
The form pulls three broad categories of data straight from your general ledger: transaction accounts, non-transaction accounts, and vault cash.
Transaction accounts cover demand deposits and NOW (Negotiable Order of Withdrawal) accounts, meaning any account where the depositor can access funds on demand or with minimal notice for payments.8Federal Reserve. Form FR 2900: Depository Institution Deposit Report These balances are the core of M1.
Non-transaction accounts include time deposits, such as certificates of deposit, and traditional savings accounts. They feed into the broader M2 aggregate.
Vault cash is the U.S. currency and coin your institution physically holds, including cash in proprietary ATMs.8Federal Reserve. Form FR 2900: Depository Institution Deposit Report Staff mapping internal ledger codes to FR 2900 line items should work from the detailed instructions the Federal Reserve publishes for each type of institution. Separate instruction sets exist for commercial banks, credit unions, savings institutions, and foreign bank branches.
Calculating Net Transaction Accounts
You don’t just enter total transaction balances. Net transaction accounts follow a specific formula: start with total transaction accounts, subtract demand balances due from other U.S. depository institutions, subtract cash items in process of collection, then add back any ineligible acceptances and short-term affiliate obligations.9Federal Reserve. Report of Transaction Accounts, Other Deposits, and Vault Cash If the result of the first three terms is negative, set it to zero before adding the last term.
The cash items in process of collection deduction is where reporters most often stumble. It primarily covers checks a customer has deposited that have been posted to the ledger and credited to the depositor but haven’t yet cleared the collection process. Treasury checks in transit, share drafts, money orders being forwarded for collection, and matured bonds awaiting settlement also qualify. Credit card slips in process, checks not yet posted to the general ledger, and items not payable in the United States do not qualify.6Federal Reserve. FR 2900 Instructions
When You File
Every FR 2900 reporter files weekly. The Fed discontinued the quarterly cycle effective January 1, 2021.5Federal Register. Agency Information Collection Activities: Announcement of Board Approval Under Delegated Authority If you are on the panel, you file every week; there is no reduced-frequency option.
The reporting week runs Tuesday through the following Monday, and the data must reflect daily figures across all seven days.10Federal Reserve. Reserve Maintenance Manual – Reporting Requirements The completed report is typically due to your Reserve Bank by noon on the Thursday following the Monday that closes the week, though exact deadlines can vary slightly by district. The Fed relies on this data for its weekly monetary aggregate releases, so late submissions get flagged quickly.
How You Submit
Submissions go through Reporting Central, the Federal Reserve’s secure web portal for regulatory filings.11Federal Reserve Financial Services. Reporting Central You log in with credentials issued by your local Reserve Bank and upload your data file. The system accepts plain text (TXT) and XML formats.12Federal Reserve Financial Services. Reporting Central and Structure Central User Guides
After the upload, complete the verification step and save the confirmation receipt. It’s your proof of timely compliance if questions surface during an examination. Reporting Central runs automated validation checks after your file enters the pipeline, and if something looks off, a Reserve Bank representative will contact you for clarification. Resolve those inquiries fast, because inaccurate inputs ripple into the Fed’s published monetary aggregates.
Record Retention
The Federal Reserve recommends keeping either the data submitted on FR 2900 or the underlying source records for at least five years.4Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The Facts Behind Your Figures: FR 2900 Report of Deposits and Vault Cash Those records support any revision requests from your Reserve Bank and give examiners an audit trail for historical submissions. Five years is a recommendation rather than a hard regulatory mandate, but treating it as a floor is the safer practice.
Penalties for Late or Inaccurate Filings
Late or inaccurate FR 2900 reports carry per-day civil money penalties that scale with culpability:
- Inadvertent errors or minimal lateness: up to $5,026 per day, provided the institution maintained reasonable procedures to avoid mistakes and the failure was unintentional. The institution bears the burden of proving the error was inadvertent.
- Other late or misleading reports: up to $50,265 per day for failures that do not qualify as inadvertent.
- Knowing or reckless false reporting: up to $2,513,215 per day, or 1 percent of total assets, whichever is less.
These inflation-adjusted amounts took effect January 13, 2025, and remain in place for 2026 because no further inflation adjustment was made for the current year.13eCFR. 12 CFR 263.65 – Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments The statutory base amounts come from 12 U.S.C. § 324, which authorizes the Board to assess and collect the penalties. An institution assessed a penalty can request an agency hearing within 20 days of receiving the assessment notice.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 324
The per-day structure means short delays add up quickly at larger institutions. Compliance teams that build FR 2900 into their weekly closing calendar and verify each line item against the Fed’s published definitions before upload rarely run into trouble. The institutions that get flagged tend to be the ones where FR 2900 preparation sits with a single person who has no backup.