
Ask HN: Is there a reason there isn't just one bank? - techsin101
Step back and think about how there are 100+ banks, how 3rd party gets to profit whenever you buy something using debit card&#x2F; credit card. How so much is wasted in advertising gimmicks by banks to get people to open account  with them... and then think about what is primary purpose of bank.<p>A place where you can safely store money and retrieve it later.<p>Have you played any mmorpg game. You store currency in bank, you get it later, you give it to others, you trade. There is no 3rd person in middle.<p>IMHO, it seems having ability to trade currency digitally and keep currency safe is just as important as providing water to each home, at least for any remotely functioning country in this century. As such shouldn&#x27;t governments provide this functionality, I don&#x27;t understand rationale behind O(n) banks. There can be separate private loaning system.<p>So WHY can&#x27;t there be one bank, whose sole purpose is to store money and transfer money?<p>Maybe govt ran independently controlled non-profit entity??<p>I feel any country that can pull this will have instantly more productive economy.<p>There should be zero fees if I buy something.<p>There should be zero delay if I transfer any amount.<p>There shouldn&#x27;t be banks!<p>Whole reason Stripe is successful because of stupidness that is electronic payment system. Yet you still pay ~$4 per $100 to no face organizations for no good reason at all. Seems like severe bottleneck to economy, and failed system. Clearly free market has failed here.<p>Again just imagine: 1 bank that nothing to sell to you, no fees, instant actions.<p>I feel whole loan money industry is riding on top of neutral and crucial service of being able to store and transfer money.<p>Institutional problems shouldn&#x27;t be solved with complicated technologies until last resort, so no blockchains.
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DrScump
Banks were created to serve then-underserved communities.

Bank of America, for example, was originally the Bank of Italy, focusing on
the Italian immigrant community of San Francisco.

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wmf
In the past when we tried things like one phone company or one oil company we
got high prices and zero innovation.

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techsin101
this won't be a company this would be service ran by community think feds who
print money? they print just fine right. All of us have a physical bills, they
are used everywhere,...

