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Why is everyone a bank?

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51–60 of 258 posts

Re: Why is everyone a bank?

#51
> Think of the last time you saw an overdraft charge on your statement and swore to yourself that this was the last straw — you are taking your business elsewhere only to be confronted with the downstream effects of moving your “financial address” — telling HR where to send the next paycheck, calling up each utility company, changing autopay for each credit card bill and so forth

Isn't this what CASS is for? Is there really no US equivalent?

Re: Why is everyone a bank?

#52
Existing banks' customer service totally sucks. These tech-focused banks have an enormous opportunity to just provided better customer service. Insightful article, I never thought about interchange as a business model.

Re: Why is everyone a bank?

#53
It has never, at any point since the introduction of electronic transfers, made the slightest bit of sense for 'payment processing' services to charge a fee which scales based upon the amount being transacted. Yet, every means of transferring money has always come with a percentage-based fee. This isn't just a simple matter of rent-seeking on the part of the financial class. It's outright dangerous, and really shouldn't be tolerated by any government. The cost to transfer money does not scale based upon the size of the numbers involved. And as the vast majority of transactions overall in our economy are now electronic, this puts payment processors essentially in the role of taxing authorities. They have the power to counteract the monetary policies of the government should they feel like doing so. Imagine if the Federal Reserve decided to print more money in order to encourage lending or something like that, but the CEOs of the largest payment processors disagreed. They could simply raise their processing fees, making it more expensive for money to be used, compensating and making the actions of the Fed ineffective. There is no law preventing them from doing this, as far as I know, and it would have immediate monumental impact on the economy.

That's a juicy target. Any company willing to clear those regulatory hurdle gets to become not just a company, but effectively a taxing authority.

Re: Why is everyone a bank?

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thin air? What are all the employees doing then?

Yup, thin air. When people borrow money, the bank just creates the money out of nowhere. That money doesn't actually exist until the debt is paid. Banks are ultimately responsible for the extreme inflation of virtually all currencies currently in use.

What do you consider extreme inflation?

Re: Why is everyone a bank?

#55

Is this going to be the sort of phenomenon that we will eventually look back as a signifier of the dumb money economic bubble we're in, similar to past trends like the wild access to credit in the Roaring Twenties, the run up to the S&L crisis in the '80s, the worthless tech IPOs of the Dot-Com Bubble, the liar's loans of the 2000s, and another examples of rampant finacialization? If the environment is one in which n…

The tech companies aren't even underwriting the accounts. They are just resellers of accounts from actual banks, throwing on a fancy web interface and then data mining your transactions.

Re: Why is everyone a bank?

#56
Everyone is a bank today for the same reason everyone was a social network in the 00's.

A few startups started encroaching into financial services territory, took all the risk (including regulatory), and now that it's clear it's something worth pursuing Big Tech is following, expecting to leverage their existing products/services/ecosystem to lock you in by yet another aspect your life.

Re: Why is everyone a bank?

#57
post #4

Another answer: because regular banks are awful to deal with. They don't have nice APIs to just move money around. They apply velocity limits at surprising times. They can terminate your account suddenly for opaque reasons. They charge high regular fees and even higher "gotcha" fees if you make a mistake. They can take back money sent to you for up to 90 days, but often can't get back money you sent to crooks even if…

> They can terminate your account suddenly for opaque reasons.

Isn't one of the requirements for being a "bank" that you can't do stuff like that?

Re: Why is everyone a bank?

#58
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have had to come up with a dollar amount worth several months of expenses on very short notice (same day, life is unpredictable). That seems like a perfect use case for using a credit card to cover the expense and then pay yourself back when your money moves out of the savings account. I have trouble imagining a case outside of a hostage situation where you would need access to your emergency fund same day.

I wouldn't expect Shelby, Mercedes, and their sisters to be held for cash every day myself, but if you really want to bring them home one of the most worthwhile options is cashthedayofthesaleasiswhereisnowarrantiesofany kind. http://www.classic-carauction.com/featured-cars?auctionid=10...

If you're buying a classic car with funds directly from your emergency fund, then more power to you I guess but maybe you should be less impulsive with money set aside for emergencies.

Personally, if I'm expecting to make a large cash purchase I have more than a few days notice.

Re: Why is everyone a bank?

#59
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have had to come up with a dollar amount worth several months of expenses on very short notice (same day, life is unpredictable). That seems like a perfect use case for using a credit card to cover the expense and then pay yourself back when your money moves out of the savings account. I have trouble imagining a case outside of a hostage situation where you would need access to your emergency fund same day.

Two examples: Auto purchase where there was an issue with the banking partner of the vehicle manufacturer. Another is a real estate transaction. Bailing friends out of jail is always cheap (~$500), but not everyone takes credit cards (no chance for the first two scenarios). Fundamentally, I should not have to explain why I would desire immediate access to my own cash reserves at a moment's notice to excuse broken fin…

Your examples seem like cases that can easily be handled by a checking account.

> Fundamentally, I should not have to explain why I would desire immediate access to my own cash reserves at a moment's notice to excuse broken financial infrastructure.

Yes, if you are investing in less-liquid assets to get a better RoI then you absolutely do. If you don't like the terms then you are free to keep your cash in your checking account.

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