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Open Banking and Payments Competition

bitsaboutmoney.com

61–70 of 96 posts

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#61
post #44

No mention of how open banking works outside of the US, where (in the UK) bank transfers are basically instantaneous and free, and I can happily retrieve my payments list to my budgeting app.

> and I can happily retrieve my payments list to my budgeting app Is this a UK thing? I've been searching for something like Mint/Quicken in the EU and haven't found anything worthwhile because there doesn't seem to be a standard for budgeting apps to connect to banks.

Yes, there is Open Banking in the UK: https://www.openbanking.org.uk/ It's the UK version of PSD2 so there should be equivalent schemes in Europe.

Not that it really is as open as many of us might like - the banks did a pretty good job of tying much of it up in red tape.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#62
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a funny chat in the 90s with soneone in charge of a bank. The thing was, they wanted me to supply a business plan. I know how to write those but find it mysterious that they want me to write it for all completely unorriginal businesses. If one wants to start a shoe store one should simply investigate the demography and map the varous shoe stores nearby. The bank is in a position to do that cheaply for their ent…

Well of course. That’s how most gatekeepers act. Why does every employee in the US need to pay an accountant to file their corporate payroll taxes, when the corporation knows how much they paid and can just use THEIR accountant to report this same information? It would be standard across many employees. And in Europe that’s largely what’s done. But in USA this creates many “bullshit jobs”. The IRS just closed their f…

>Why does every employee in the US need to pay an accountant to file their corporate payroll taxes, when the corporation knows how much they paid and can just use THEIR accountant to report this same information?

You don't need an accountant, and employees do not pay "corporate payroll taxes", they usually just pay income tax to the federal government.

And if you think tax liability is based solely on amount of pay received from an employer, then I think you must not have any experience with paying income taxes in the US.

>The IRS just closed their free file under Trump admin

Free Fillable Forms is still available for electronic submissions. What closed was the government provided alternative to guided tax preparation software like TurboTax.

> some states have NO WAY for you to file taxes without an accountant!

I doubt this. Please provide an example.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#63
post #55
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> I mean there's fraud and theft on all levels you are confusing payment card issuers and processors with banks

Many/most banks are also issuing banks (which means that they issue V/MC cards to their users). And fundamentally credit and debit cards are a source of credit risk and fraud for those banks.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#64
post #59
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…

It's a great idea, but it's been killed off by the small print that was lobbied into the requirements Basically, banks force apps or users to require you fully revalidate user consent every 90 days. And it's quite an annoying process. That means any app or integration you want to build, requires 10 minutes of your time every 90 days or they stop working. It's killed many Fintech's. It all works on paper, but is draft…

180 days (changed recently)

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#65
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it mean that you are your won bank? Do you treat your matrass like a bank? Maybe with the pidgin carrier protocol to do money transfers?

I use a decentralized global ledger and can make instantaneous peer to peer payments to anyone on the planet. I'm not just my own bank, I participate in a system that replaces central banks and provides a money that isn't constantly devalued. It's called bitcoin.

I don't receive my salary in Bitcoin and I can't pay my groceries, rent or taxes with it. People own Bitcoin because they expect prices to rise further, not for its utility.

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#66
post #53
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and I can happily retrieve my payments list to my budgeting app Is this a UK thing? I've been searching for something like Mint/Quicken in the EU and haven't found anything worthwhile because there doesn't seem to be a standard for budgeting apps to connect to banks.

PSD2 is that standard. I personally use Finanzguru (for the German market, it supports many banks). Likely to be many others.

Seems like my bank started supporting it last year. Will check it out.

Clearly, I must have been searching wrong!

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#67
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does it mean that you are your won bank? Do you treat your matrass like a bank? Maybe with the pidgin carrier protocol to do money transfers?

I use a decentralized global ledger and can make instantaneous peer to peer payments to anyone on the planet. I'm not just my own bank, I participate in a system that replaces central banks and provides a money that isn't constantly devalued. It's called bitcoin.

So the miners safeguard your money (hopefully), they are also responsible for actually transmitting your money (hopefully), and you don't take any deposits or make loans to customers.

You don't hold your own money, you don't manage transferring your own money, you basically don't do any of the things a bank does. How does that make you your own bank exactly?

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#68
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and I can happily retrieve my payments list to my budgeting app Is this a UK thing? I've been searching for something like Mint/Quicken in the EU and haven't found anything worthwhile because there doesn't seem to be a standard for budgeting apps to connect to banks.

A quick search shows this one is well regarded https://www.bilanceapp.com/

Interesting... in that it apparently has the exact same limitations as my bank's built-in finance tracking feature (including being mobile-only).

Re: Open Banking and Payments Competition

#69
post #4

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…

Anytime I've tried to buy something with crypto, the fees have been an order of magnitude higher than interchange (credit card) fees. And unlike credit cards, the cost is put on me not the merchant.
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