Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service

The Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service (CDARS), is a US for-profit service that breaks up large deposits (from individuals, companies, nonprofits, public funds, etc.) and places them across a network of more than 3000 banks and savings associations around the United States. This allows depositors to deal with a single bank that participates in CDARS but avoid having funds above the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) deposit insurance limits in any one bank.

How it works

The service can place multiple millions in deposits per customer and make all of it qualify for FDIC insurance coverage. A customer can achieve a similar result, as far as FDIC insurance is concerned, by going to a traditional deposit broker or opening accounts directly at multiple banks (although depending on the amount this could require a lot more paperwork). With the CDARS service, the customer’s local bank sets the interest rate that will be paid on the entire deposit amount, and the customer gets one consolidated statement from that bank.