Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Open Banking and Payments Competition

bitsaboutmoney.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 96 posts

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#31

Post by victorbjorklund »

toenail wrote: post #17
ranger207 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto and blockchain by itself does not solve any of these problems. It's merely a payments system that happens to be on a computer natively. There's nothing technical preventing banks from getting together and making Open Banking a well-supported thing like they're supposed to be doing; it's all just code and contracts in the end. It's not that they can't , it's that they won't , and they won't for business and pol…

The idea that I’d need anybody’s permission or a regulation to allow me to give my money to somebody else is the problem.

Who's permission do you need to be allowed to accept $10 in cash? I mean there are regulations but that is usually not related directly to the cash payment itself but rather that you know you might need to pay taxes or there is regulation that you can't commit terrorist acts and you know that could be the blocker but then it's not really the cash payment that is needing permission. And again, nothing that Bitcoin or other crypto is solving because you still would have to have the same kind of permission or just not care about the permission but you can do that with cash too.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#32

Post by elric »

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #7

I just want to easily pull bank/card transactions into my budget app, and the glacial pace of open banking really annoys me. The pace in Canada has been just as slow, although we have Interac for direct person to person transfers already so I'm not sure how much the issue of direct payments applies there. It's really just f**ing ridiculous that some of the earliest and most important digital systems we have are allow…

> allowed to wall in their data with no API access

There's PSD2 in the EU (or Eurozone? Not sure actually). Basically forces banks to open common APIs to encourage interopability and competition. However, it's not aimed at users but rather at companies in fintech building applications.

Some banks (Bunq comes to mind) offer APIs to their customers for direct use, but most don't. The reason is obviously security. People still fall for phishing, people still give fake bank staff their access codes on the phone. Giving normal users a way to have API access to their bank account would be disastrous for many of those users.

Now, it would be nice if things like PSD2 were a little more accessible and transparent. Currently you need permission from an institution like The National Bank to gain access. It's expensive and bureaucratic.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#33

Post by elric »

gethly wrote: post #30

The entire banking industry is the most backwards, outdated and barely functioning sector in the whole world. I have no clue how we have not yet collapsed the financial system via some hack or basic data loss.

> I have no clue how we have not yet collapsed the financial system via some hack or basic data loss.

Banks are pretty good at not losing data. They're also pretty good at layered security.

I mean there's fraud and theft on all levels, but collapse-level events don't come from "a hack or basic data loss". They come from political incompetence and large scale economic events.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#34

Post by nicbou »

elric wrote: post #32
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #7

I just want to easily pull bank/card transactions into my budget app, and the glacial pace of open banking really annoys me. The pace in Canada has been just as slow, although we have Interac for direct person to person transfers already so I'm not sure how much the issue of direct payments applies there. It's really just f**ing ridiculous that some of the earliest and most important digital systems we have are allow…

> allowed to wall in their data with no API access There's PSD2 in the EU (or Eurozone? Not sure actually). Basically forces banks to open common APIs to encourage interopability and competition. However, it's not aimed at users but rather at companies in fintech building applications. Some banks (Bunq comes to mind) offer APIs to their customers for direct use, but most don't. The reason is obviously security. Peopl…

I was really disappointed by that. I still can't easily retrieve a list of my transactions.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#35

Post by blitzar »

gethly wrote: post #30

The entire banking industry is the most backwards, outdated and barely functioning sector in the whole world. I have no clue how we have not yet collapsed the financial system via some hack or basic data loss.

> I have no clue how we have not yet collapsed the financial system via some hack or basic data loss.

Sometimes not moving fast and not breaking things has its advantages.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#36

Post by astrange »

gethly wrote: post #30

The entire banking industry is the most backwards, outdated and barely functioning sector in the whole world. I have no clue how we have not yet collapsed the financial system via some hack or basic data loss.

Have you considered that people who aren't you aren't all complete morons?

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#37

Post by astrange »

EGreg wrote: post #4
contingencies wrote: post #2

HN darling but ... thumbs down. Seemingly no insight. Long read (skipped most). IMHO largely valueless opine and supposition. I think we already know bankers bank, corporations can't innovate, and regulations are abused for protectionism.

HN anathema: crypto and blockchain — can and does trivially solve the issues Patrick writes about. You can easily make sure the account has enough money, without knowing whose account it is. Crypto is “buyer beware”. The traditional fintech system is “seller beware”. But crypto is programmable and in theory you could easily make use of arbitration, resolution of disputes, and periodic payouts etc. All without being f…

You can't be sure of anything just because a crypto wallet appears to have a number in it, because the legal system exists, and judges don't care what you think a number means if they think something different.

Mainly this comes up during bankruptcy, but they can also just order you to return stolen funds you've received even if you would prefer not to do that.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#38

Post by astrange »

toenail wrote: post #24
zihotki wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still can - make a wire transfer or give them cash. Or what is your actual problem?

My actual problem is that the central bank devalues the money I earned. I'm glad to hear that the financial system works for you, and that you have zero problems making transactions to anybody on the planet. That's not true for a lot of people.

The second law of thermodynamics devalues the money you earned. There's no way you can have $10 that always and forever buys the same things $10 currently does.

Central banks keep its value higher than the alternative, as anyone who doesn't have oppositional defiance disorder would notice from the fact that we haven't had a Great Depression lately. Because it really gets devalued if there's an economic collapse and all the businesses you trade with cease to exist.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#39

Post by eitau_1 »

elric wrote: post #32
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #7

I just want to easily pull bank/card transactions into my budget app, and the glacial pace of open banking really annoys me. The pace in Canada has been just as slow, although we have Interac for direct person to person transfers already so I'm not sure how much the issue of direct payments applies there. It's really just f**ing ridiculous that some of the earliest and most important digital systems we have are allow…

> allowed to wall in their data with no API access There's PSD2 in the EU (or Eurozone? Not sure actually). Basically forces banks to open common APIs to encourage interopability and competition. However, it's not aimed at users but rather at companies in fintech building applications. Some banks (Bunq comes to mind) offer APIs to their customers for direct use, but most don't. The reason is obviously security. Peopl…

I'd be more than happy with read-only access. Still potentially bad for 'normal users' but not disastrous.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#40

Post by moi2388 »

nicbou wrote: post #34
elric wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> allowed to wall in their data with no API access There's PSD2 in the EU (or Eurozone? Not sure actually). Basically forces banks to open common APIs to encourage interopability and competition. However, it's not aimed at users but rather at companies in fintech building applications. Some banks (Bunq comes to mind) offer APIs to their customers for direct use, but most don't. The reason is obviously security. Peopl…

I was really disappointed by that. I still can't easily retrieve a list of my transactions.

I am very happy with that, because it means the PSD2 providers have their security tested before they are accepted.
Post reply on HN