Definition of upstream

1. correspondent bank that buys loan participation exceeding the legal lending limit of a community bank, also called the downstream bank or respondent bank. Typically, correspondent banks offer other banking services for community banks, such as check collection, foreign exchange, and arrange letter of credit financing.
2. loan or transfer of funds, for example, earnings or capital, from a subsidiary to its parent company, a term widely used in banking to denote the internal movements of funds within a bank holding company. Corporate dividends in a multibank holding company are paid out of funds transferred to the holding company by its operating banks.

describing data transmission) in a direction from the client to the server, or from the peripheral to the main computer. Compare upload. Contrast downstream.

opposite of downstream.