How does a rolling reserve work?
The provider withholds a percentage of every settlement and releases each withheld amount when its window ends. Stripe’s support documentation gives a worked case of a 25% reserve on a 30-day rolling window, where a quarter of each sale is withheld and returns to the available balance after 30 days. Stripe explains that reserves exist to cover expected future disputes, because disputed amounts and network fees can exceed what the account balance covers.
Why does a rolling reserve matter?
It is working capital the merchant cannot use. As an illustrative example: a merchant processing 1,000,000 euros a month under a 10% rolling reserve with a 90-day window has about 300,000 euros held once the reserve is fully built. If the provider raises the reserve to 15%, another 150,000 euros is withheld over the next three months, straight out of cash flow.
What are the risks of reserves for multi-provider merchants?
Each provider sets its own reserve on its own share of the traffic, so a merchant with three providers can have three reserves with three schedules. Reconciliation has to separate held amounts from fees, refunds and chargebacks in each settlement file. And moving volume away from a provider does not release its reserve early; funds come back on the original schedule.
Where does Omno use it?
Reserves are set and held by each PSP or acquirer, not by Omno. Omno keeps one transaction record across connected providers, with reporting and data export that finance teams can match against each provider’s settlement reports, including reserve lines.