
Ask HN: Where do corps keep their money? - ed_elliott_asc
I saw an article that said FB was going to put $3billion aside, where do they put it?
======
wsh
Entire textbooks have been written about the corporate treasury or cash
management function. Briefly, large companies try to keep as little money as
possible in deposit accounts at banks; the rest goes into investments,
selected for risk, return, and liquidity consistent with the company’s
forecast of its cash requirements.

This may not have much to do with the article you read, however. When it’s
said that a company has put an amount of money aside, it often means that the
company has recorded a liability in that amount on its balance sheet, or that
it plans to spend that amount in the future. Nothing about where the company
is keeping the money, if it even _has_ the money, may have changed.

Ironically, the details of companies’ cash management systems are revealed in
bankruptcy filings, since the debtor company has to ask for court permission
to keep using its existing bank accounts. For example, here’s a motion from
PG&E Corporation, the large California utility holding company, with diagrams
of its bank accounts and a copy of its investment policy:

[https://restructuring.primeclerk.com/pge/Home-
DownloadPDF?id...](https://restructuring.primeclerk.com/pge/Home-
DownloadPDF?id1=MTI5MDk0&id2=0)

