What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Bank of New York Mellon generated $3.31B of operating cash flow and $1.46B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 44% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Bank of New York Mellon's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.31B

Capex

-$1.85B

Free Cash Flow

$1.46B

FCF Margin

+44.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.46B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.31B	$3.31B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.85B	$1.46B
Free Cash Flow	$1.46B	$1.46B
Other Investing	-$107B	-$106B
Share Buybacks	-$3.77B	-$110B
Dividends Paid	-$1.71B	-$111B
Net Debt Change	$3.18B	-$108B
Other Financing	$109B	$1.02B
Forex Effect	$55M	$1.08B
Net Cash Increase	$1.08B	$1.08B

Operating Cash Flow$3.31B
Capital Expenditure-$1.85B
Free Cash Flow$1.46B
Other Investing-$107B
Share Buybacks-$3.77B
Dividends Paid-$1.71B
Net Debt Change$3.18B
Other Financing$109B
Forex Effect$55M
Net Cash Increase$1.08B

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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