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Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

root.co.za

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Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#171

Post by nxcho »

s_dev wrote: post #45

People asking about what problem this solves haven't been to South Africa or Zimbabwe which in some ways are ahead of the West in creating cashless societies. The biggest bank is a phone operator and people can send each other money over the phone and from what I understand this is very common. Also interestingly most phones aren't smart phones. It's mostly analog. Banks have a serious incentive to create and encoura…

I would say that a lot of countries in EU are ahead of US in eliminating cash as well (wether this is good or bad can be discussed). The new EU Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2) will essentially force EU banks to open apis for account information and payments to third parties.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#173

Post by sjtgraham »

Tharkun wrote: post #144
sjtgraham wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Founder here. Currently in private beta, but if you're with Santander, Nationwide, RBS, Natwest, Ulster Bank NI, or IOM Bank I can give you access - sg@teller.io.

How will teller be impacted by PSD2? Will it make your life easier?

PSD2 will raise awareness of APIs, but I expect what is delivered by banks to be disappointing. There are many reasons to suspect this all flowing from the reality that opening up access to the customer is in the exact opposite of their own best interests. Even if they act in good faith, which in my opinion they are generally speaking not, the design is by committee, with no users (account owners or developers) involved and their needs taking a back seat. This is the opposite to Teller's approach.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#174

Post by wdick »

mweibel wrote: post #131
captainmuon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it's even regulation, just inertia. There used to be (still is?) an API called HBCI, but to my knowlegdge that required a smartcard (maybe not to bad an idea) and was mostly read-only. I think in the early 2000s you could use things like Quicken and MS Money to do homebanking (is this why some people in Germany still have the impression that it is dangerous and complicated?) I think what "Sofortüberweisung.co…

It still is though it's recently called FinTS. Most german banks implement it and it's read/write usually. Every bank has some specialities (even sometimes some bank branches have specialities) so it's usually not _that_ easy to implement if you want support for all banks.

"All" banks in Germany are run by less than 10 data centers. The second biggest, Fiducia, operates about 600 banks. This is one API for 600 banks.

For the API - almost all business accounts support HBCI or EBICS. For example my tax accountant and tax software have full access to my business account.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#175

Post by apostacy »

louwhopley wrote: post #139
apostacy wrote: post #135

When can I have direct control of recurring payments? I want to be able to "push" money instead of having it "pulled" from my account. This is a totally reasonable feature. If a merchant wants assurance that they will be paid, they should charge a deposit. The closest I've had is Entropay, but I don't really trust them for large payments. Recurring payments are so abused, I can't count how many times I have been misl…

Hey (founder of Root here), our platform gives you full API access to, for instance, do any of the things you do on the normal banking interface through code - like initiating a transfer to someone else, or building your own recurring payments system using a simple cron job :)

Apps that let you manage video game currency often give you so much more control than your bank's app gives you over your real money in your checking account! It's an imbalanced situation, and I think there's a lot of room to improve. Perhaps I can use your API to do something like that.

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#176

Post by fiatjaf »

s_dev wrote: post #45

People asking about what problem this solves haven't been to South Africa or Zimbabwe which in some ways are ahead of the West in creating cashless societies. The biggest bank is a phone operator and people can send each other money over the phone and from what I understand this is very common. Also interestingly most phones aren't smart phones. It's mostly analog. Banks have a serious incentive to create and encoura…

Do you think it is good (or an "advancement") to eliminate cash?

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#177

Post by matdehaast »

Hey, @louwhopley. So cool to see this project on HN! Signed up for your early access a few weeks ago and hope to get access soon.

I think there is a lot of opportunities still within Africa for the informal sector with technology. However, the FICA guidelines make it quite difficult to operate in this space. Do you see a future where we can service this sector better whilst still be compliant?

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#178

Post by hardly_a_mirage »

eutropia wrote: post #105
snowwolf wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about streaming your transactions to a budgeting service to approve or deny if you've gone over budget for the month. Or build your own rules to deny certain transactions if you are approaching 0 balance. I think there are lots of use cases you could think of that are custom to you that no bank would ever build.

I think it would be great for every purchase of mine to round up to the nearest $5 or $10 increment and transfer the difference into savings, or have it be percentage based, etc. Having payments from clients automatically set-aside tax money would be great, too.

This sounds like a great idea!

Re: Root – Programmable bank account for software developers

#180

Post by lightbyte »

louwhopley wrote: post #61
jurandom wrote: post #48

Cool. I see parallels with Ethereum here. How complex can the rules be? Could you have smart contract functionality?

The rules can be as complex as the code you can write. It effectively sends a webhook on which you can respond "decline" to stop the tx from succeeding. (RootCode also packages this concept to make it quicker to prototype)

Is there a timeout for approving/declining transactions? I'd be interested in setting up a sort of 2FA for large/over budget transactions where I'd have to manually approve it before it goes through.

e.g. "You've already spent over your monthly Amazon budget by X amount, are you sure you want to make this $200 purchase?"

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