Clawback Reserve

The clawback reserve system protects the service against the financial risk of reversed Direct Debit payments. A portion of collected funds is held back in the Griffin DD holding account and is not forwarded to the agent's client account until the reserve requirement is satisfied.

How the Reserve is Calculated

The required reserve for an organisation is calculated using the following formula:

reserve = max(minimum_threshold, total_pending_funds × risk_factor)

Variable	Description
minimum_threshold	The absolute floor for the reserve, denominated in GBP. Configurable per organisation.
risk_factor	A multiplier applied to the total value of pending (held) funds. Configurable per organisation.
total_pending_funds	The current value of funds held in the Griffin DD holding account that have not yet been forwarded.

The higher of the two values — the threshold floor or the risk-adjusted amount — is always used, ensuring the reserve is never lower than the minimum regardless of collection volume.

Example

An organisation has:

• minimum_threshold = £500
• risk_factor = 0.05 (5%)
• total_pending_funds = £20,000

reserve = max(500, 20000 × 0.05)
         = max(500, 1000)
         = £1,000

The service must hold at least £1,000 in the Griffin DD holding account before any funds can be forwarded.

When the Reserve is Evaluated

The reserve is recalculated automatically after every sweep from the Modulr collection account into the Griffin DD holding account. This ensures the reserve reflects the most current picture of pending funds.

Forward-to-Client Enforcement

Before the service forwards funds from the Griffin holding account to an agent's Griffin client account, it checks:

Griffin holding balance ≥ reserve

• If satisfied — the forward proceeds and the excess above the reserve is transferred to the client account.
• If not satisfied — the forward is blocked. The funds remain in the holding account until subsequent collections bring the balance above the reserve level.

This check is non-negotiable; it cannot be bypassed via the API.

Alerting

An alert is raised automatically when the holding account balance drops below the configured minimum_threshold. This can happen if a clawback is processed and reduces the holding balance.

Alerts follow the standard platform alerting format and can be:

• Viewed via the REST API (GET /alerts)
• Acknowledged via the REST API (POST /alerts/:id/acknowledge)

See the Alerting & Thresholds documentation for full details on alert types and configuration.

Reserve Snapshots & Audit Trail

Every time the reserve is calculated, a snapshot is persisted. Snapshots record:

• The calculated reserve value
• The minimum_threshold and risk_factor used
• The total_pending_funds at the time of calculation
• The Griffin holding balance at the time of calculation
• A timestamp

Snapshots are stored indefinitely and are available for audit and compliance purposes.

Querying Reserve Status

The current reserve status for an organisation is available via the API.

REST API

GET /reserve/status

Response

{
  "organisationId": "org_abc123",
  "requiredReserve": 1000.00,
  "holdingBalance": 4250.00,
  "reserveSatisfied": true,
  "minimumThreshold": 500.00,
  "riskFactor": 0.05,
  "totalPendingFunds": 20000.00,
  "calculatedAt": "2025-01-15T09:32:00Z"
}

tRPC

The same data is available via the internal tRPC interface for server-to-server use.

Configuration

Reserve parameters are configured per organisation. Contact your platform administrator or use the organisation settings API to update:

Parameter	Type	Description
minimumThreshold	number (GBP)	Absolute minimum reserve floor
riskFactor	number (0–1)	Fraction of pending funds to hold as reserve