For Customers Log in
Contact Us

Scheduled Settlement Meaning

Scheduled settlement is a financial process where transactions are not finalized immediately, but are instead collected and processed in Batches at specific times throughout the day. This is the standard operating model for the legacy banking system (like ACH or SWIFT), where money might move in your app, but the actual Interbank Settlement doesn't happen until a 4:00 PM cutoff or the following business day.This system was designed for an era of manual accounting and limited computing power.

By Batching transactions, banks can Net their obligations against each other. If Bank A owes Bank B $1 million, and Bank B owes Bank A $900,000, they only need to physically move $100,000 at the end of the day.

While efficient for the banks, it creates Settlement Risk and Liquidity Lag for the users, who cannot use their funds until the next Settlement Window opens.Blockchain technology is the Antidote to scheduled settlement. Most blockchains use Real-time Settlement, where every transaction is settled individually and permanently as soon as a block is mined.

However, as the crypto industry matures, some Layer 2 solutions and institutional exchanges are re-introducing scheduled settlement (or Batching) to save on gas fees or to allow for more complex regulatory checks, showing that both models have a place in the modern financial stack.

← Back to Glossary

Explore our services
Providing liquidity in the cryptocurrency market?
Authorize on our platform and do it smarter with FM Pulse.
pic

FM Marketplace

A reliable and high-performance crypto liquidity marketplace for institutions and businesses.

Learn more
pic

FM White Label

Launch your fully branded B2B crypto trading platform in under one week.

Learn more
pic

FM Liquidity Match

Crypto OTC-as-a-Service infrastructure for enhanced monetization and trade control.

Learn more

Scale your business, leave the hard work of your trading needs to us

Reduce your integration costs and operational risk across multiple access points with our platform

Get started