> It sounds like a big risk for a bank….

On the contrary, the banks aren't on the hook here! If they have a clear answer for "Yes, this customer's money is with you", then they pay. If not, they sit on the funds until some court orders them to do something with them.

The banks are winning big time here. It's their customers who eat the risk.

Ultimately the source of the loss is going to turn out to be some fraud at Synapse that caused their bankruptcy, but it seems like no one has details on that yet. But until then, the banks are sitting on unowned/untraceable free cash. They're loving this deal.

It’s not clear to me if the banks are in the clear yet.