The government just picked Wall Street and a retail trading app to run the biggest kids' investment program in U.S. history. BNY Mellon and Robinhood will run Trump Accounts - tax-free accounts for kids.
The idea is straightforward: every child born from 2025 to 2028 gets $1,000 from the Treasury. The money grows tax-free until the child is old enough to manage it.
The bet is that early investing teaches better money habits.
Already 4 million kids signed up by March 31, before the app even launched. 1 million qualify for the $1,000 Treasury seed - that's $1 billion out the door immediately.
The full program could reach tens of millions of kids. That's huge for whatever brokerage wins the business.
BNY is one of America's oldest banks. Robinhood is the app that killed trading fees and taught millennials to invest. Pairing them is smart: BNY adds trust, Robinhood adds the app young people actually use.
Robinhood handles the investing. BNY manages the structure and security. Clean split.
July 4 launch is near. The real test: does the app work smoothly when millions of transactions hit it?
If Robinhood fumbles, parents blame them. If it runs clean, Robinhood locks in kids who'll use the app for 20 years. That's huge customer growth - if the app doesn't break.
Even small profit per account times 4 million accounts times 20 years is big money for the company.
