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Column – a chartered bank for developers

column.com

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Re: Column – a chartered bank for developers

#81

Post by dragonwriter »

giorgioz wrote: post #78
arcticbull wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even throw it in a Series I risk-free savings bond paying 8%. [edit] I'm not an expert but explained why I wouldn't do that personally in a peer to your reply.

Your comment, though sarcastic, underlines some points I thought about myself and I would like to discuss it! We are both well aware that there is no risk-free investment. Governments bonds that are considered less risky that ETFs usually return 1-2% per year. The ETF I'm talking about maps a market index covering a big chunk of the US market or several stable international markets. They are still a risk, your house…

> I think if you only have your mortgage as an asset

Your mortgage is a liability, not an asset.

Re: Column – a chartered bank for developers

#82

Post by thecosas »

rawoke083600 wrote: post #60
whockey wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We plan on rolling out some corresponding banking services this year to help people with multi-currency accounts and international wires - but it would still be under our US charter. No short term plans to go international - there's a lot of ground we need to cover here. We tend to like to go very deep in an area instead of getting to spread thin.

I can tell you MANY countries are NOT being served by services like STRIPE (South Africa for example) ! I always feel like there is a big opportunity bringing "these financial startups" to where the major players are NOT. Congrats on releasing ! :) I would use it, if it was available in South Africa :P

Looks like Paystack is available in South Africa and might be worth checking out if you haven't already :-)

https://paystack.com/za/pricing?localeUpdate=true

Re: Column – a chartered bank for developers

#83

Post by arcticbull »

dragonwriter wrote: post #81
giorgioz wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment, though sarcastic, underlines some points I thought about myself and I would like to discuss it! We are both well aware that there is no risk-free investment. Governments bonds that are considered less risky that ETFs usually return 1-2% per year. The ETF I'm talking about maps a market index covering a big chunk of the US market or several stable international markets. They are still a risk, your house…

> I think if you only have your mortgage as an asset Your mortgage is a liability, not an asset.

It really isn't if the interest rate is below inflation. If it's below inflation, the mortgage is yielding real-dollar value. That's an asset in my eyes.

It's a calendar spread. Last year, you were buying 2021 dollars for a fixed rate (2.675% APR in my case), but you different vintage dollars over time. You owe 2022 dollars in 2022, and 2031 dollars in 2031. A 2051 dollar is almost certainly going to be worth significantly less than a 2021 dollar.

So you're buying 1 2021 vintage USD, but at the extreme, you're paying it back with 2.2 2050 dollars. If we expect inflation to be an average of say, 3% over that period, each 2021 vintage USD should be worth at least 2.42 2021 vintage dollars. So in this example, you're earning real dollars over this period.

Re: Column – a chartered bank for developers

#84

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

Congratulations on the launch! I wonder if this kind of business model, where it looks like there is basically "one really rich guy self-funding" for a couple of years, is going to be more common.

That is, just looking at the site, my guess is that building everything from the ground up (core banking stack, acquiring the chartered bank, then all the APIs and tech on top of that) must have taken many years and many, many millions of dollars. And kudos, because the first thing that struck out at me is the documentation looks excellent. Overall, it looks like something where the the team had all the luxury to "do things right from the ground floor", instead of scrambling and making shortcuts before their runway ran out. I just think it would have been very hard to find a VC willing to be patient enough to wait that long with no revenue or customer feedback ("where's your MVP???")

Re: Column – a chartered bank for developers

#85

Post by thecosas »

strzalek wrote: post #68
earthboundkid wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much COBOL do you have to write on a daily basis?

Zero. The whole stack is built in golang from scratch and we integrate with FED over some... interesting protocols.

  we integrate with FED over some... interesting protocols.
Would love to know more!

Re: Column – a chartered bank for developers

#87

Post by blockwriter »

I am not a professional developer, but I have been developing little projects because I realized the importance, both personally and professionally, of keeping up with new technologies. I would be interested in setting up an account with Column, if only to grow familiar with its advantages. I have been working with Stripe to handle my business' e-commerce and in-person payments. I am curious to know if there is an advantage to using Column in conjunction with a service like Stripe. I know Stripe does things like card issuing. What are the reasons, either explicit or esoteric, for using Column's features rather than a service like Stripe where those features overlap?

Re: Column – a chartered bank for developers

#88

Post by lachyg »

tome wrote: post #66
whockey wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US (and most countries) in order to get access to the central bank (in the US the fed) and do 'banking things' like holding money, moving money, and lending money you have to have a banking charter. We have a national charter (issued by the OCC) but you can also have some other more bespoke charters as well!

So what's a non-chartered bank?

I believe they're looking to imply here that they own their own charter, rather than renting someone else's, which is how almost all U.S. fintech companies operate (look in the website footer of, say, Unit and you'll see: "Banking services are provided by Unit's partner banks who are Member FDIC.")

Re: Column – a chartered bank for developers

#89

Post by sofixa »

rawoke083600 wrote: post #60
whockey wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We plan on rolling out some corresponding banking services this year to help people with multi-currency accounts and international wires - but it would still be under our US charter. No short term plans to go international - there's a lot of ground we need to cover here. We tend to like to go very deep in an area instead of getting to spread thin.

I can tell you MANY countries are NOT being served by services like STRIPE (South Africa for example) ! I always feel like there is a big opportunity bringing "these financial startups" to where the major players are NOT. Congrats on releasing ! :) I would use it, if it was available in South Africa :P

Yeah, it's a tough spot. For the big players, there's heavy investment to enter a new market due to local regulations. A local startup could probably do it more easily, but while they grow there's always the risk the big players might decide they're a threat, they want that market, and invest rapidly and dump the local startup.

Re: Column – a chartered bank for developers

#90

Post by fierro »

giorgioz wrote: post #65
whockey wrote: post #8

Hey founder (and OP) here. This has been a labor of love for the past few years and I'm super stoked on what we shipped. Would love any and all feedback, thoughts and questions!

This looks like an awesome shiny tool but I'm not sure what I could do with it! Some Use Cases of successful or hypothetical customers using your product might help other understand how they can use Column for their business. Is Column Use case to create cards/accounts for a business' customers like Apple did with the Apple credit card? In my case, I'm the founder of https://www.waiterio.com which is a B2B order mana…

Yes, you can use Column to create and offer bank accounts as well as build debit/credit/charge programs. There's a part of the website that describes some common use cases https://column.com/docs/guides/#use-cases
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