
Banks need to take on Amazon and Google or die - zt
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/bc70c9fe-4e1d-11e3-8fa5-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2mvWDIBZk
======
x0x0
I think banks are in deep trouble whether they know it or not.

Google won't be able to compete -- their attitude towards customer service is
to drop trou and shit on their customer. It's annoying enough when it's your
email, but if I where to move $10-$100k of cash to them I would expect to pick
up the phone and get a human being empowered to make decisions on the phone.
I've been on the wrong side of their customer service enough that I actively
try to prevent relatives and friends from depending on anything google makes.

Amazon, however, loves coming into medium to high capital requirement low
margin businesses and destroying the competition. I'm actually a little
surprised they haven't been more aggressive here. The small credit unions that
can offer local service and actually answer the phone may survive, but what
differentiates citi/bofa/wellsfargo/bancorp etc? Not much that I can see --
unless you're a high net worth individual, there's little reason for most
people who don't eg have international banking issues to bother with them.

I've been a customer of a local credit union for nearly 5 years. In that time,
I've entered a branch exactly once: when I opened my account. I've opened new
accounts, had my credit card stolen, gotten fraudulent purchases refunded,
purchased a car via a loan, refinanced another loan, and gotten a quote for a
mortgage mostly online with a handful of phone calls.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> but what differentiates citi/bofa/wellsfargo/bancorp etc? Not much that I
> can see -- unless you're a high net worth individual, there's little reason
> for most people who don't eg have international banking issues to bother
> with them.

I actually switched from a big bank (PNC, great service but slow on the tech
side to evolve) to Simple [[http://www.simple.com](http://www.simple.com)]. I
get a debit card, beautiful mobile and web apps, and I can do everything I
could with a regular bank except going to a branch. And I _never_ go to a
branch (mobile deposit, ATM network, debit card, done).

Their support is excellent as well, something I'd never get from Amazon or
Google.

~~~
klous
One weird thing you can't do with Simple is deposit cash directly through any
ATM. They do not allow that. The only way is to get a cashier's check or
similar instrument OR deposit cash in an account that does accept cash then
transfer the money (and wait several days for it to clear)

~~~
toomuchtodo
This is correct, and while I haven't and should never have the need to do
that, I understand some people may require that functionality.

EDIT: It appears you can get a money order at Walmart for 70 cents, and
$1.20-$1.60 at USPS. Cashier's check at a local bank would be ~$5-10,
depending if you're a customer or not.

------
kwestro
These content paywalls are killing me. I can't even read the story. Even one
of my local newspapers decided to put up a paywall. They're losing a lot of
readers because of it.

~~~
evan_
So pay the subscription fee.

~~~
krakensden
I have a subscription to a couple of news sources. I'm not super willing to
just subscribe to things that show up on HN. I know FT is highly regarded, but
the only articles I've ever successfully read on it are those bizarre
fetishistic lunch interview things.

There is some sort of balance you need to strike between porous and
impenetrable with a paywall. FT is too closed to be compelling to me, and
probably a lot of other people.

More broadly, if you're putting a link on HN, it's your responsibility to make
sure people can read it. If they can't, don't post it, please.

~~~
jurjenh
Micro-payments. Quick, easy, one-time. Then you don't need to worry about a
thousand subscriptions to rarely-read sources.

Sounds easy, but I don't believe anyone has something that works?

~~~
AnthonyMouse
Micro-payments have two fundamental problems:

The first problem is inertia. You need a critical mass of users before anyone
will bother to accept a particular payment processor, but users don't sign up
if no one accepts the payment service. This is the reason why people still use
Paypal.

The second problem is fraud. If someone commits fraud over a matter of $0.20,
what amount of resources can you really afford to spend investigating it? A
micropayment processor that thoroughly investigates fraud will have to charge
the sellers a large chunk of the payments they process, but one that doesn't
will be bankrupted by fraudsters.

Crypto currencies have some potential to break this by changing who eats the
loss in the case of fraud. If it isn't the payment processor (or there is no
payment processor) then micro-payments become viable. You still have problems
with e.g. malicious software stealing bitcoins, but they're _different_
problems that don't break micro-payments.

------
jwheeler79
This article is horseshit. Just because some random sees google/amazon
disrupting other industries doesn't mean they'll disrupt banking too. Not
saying it couldn't happen ever, but it has the same basis as saying google is
going to disrupt the railroad industry or the carpet and flooring industry.
There aren't any particularly strong signs that point to amazon wanting to
service your mortgage anytime soon.

~~~
hershel
One interesting sign(regarding commercial banking) is that amazon has started
offering loans to some businesses who sell using it's platform , and is able
to offer better terms using sales data they've got.

~~~
jwheeler79
I've heard of that. PayPal also has Bill Me Later, and there are niche players
like Kabbage. They're all still a ways off from full scale banking operations
like JP Morgan Chase. The big banks are nearly as large as Google in Market
cap individually and have trillions of dollars worth of assets on their
balance sheets. My point being they are players with the resources to go up
against a google in Washington, D.C. If anyone is a threat to banking, I would
say it is PayPal. They have over 100M people signed up in the US alone to
transfer money, but that only competes with a small aspect of bank business
(service fees), the larger parts being investment banking and loan
operations/net interest income

------
Urgo
You can view the artical by googleing for it by the title (same as on HN) and
then clicking the link from there (or change your referral site to google.com
I suppose)

[https://www.google.com/search?q=Banks+need+to+take+on+Amazon...](https://www.google.com/search?q=Banks+need+to+take+on+Amazon+and+Google+or+die&oq=Banks+need+to+take+on+Amazon+and+Google+or+die)

------
tomasien
Interesting the mention of payment processors like PayPal or Dwolla but little
mention of payments. If banks became the primary interface for making
payments, that would change everything for businesses and allow the kind of
data usage they're talking about here.

That's what I'm working on, nice to see someone pointing out some of the
things we've been talking about internally!

------
psay
Any start-ups trying to help mortgage brokers / originators? Many like Ellie
Mae, LPS and others feel like old school application vendors. Of the banks,
who "gets it?"

