> So if you move to a new town, you can't get a loan because the bank doesn't know you?
If you are using a different bank in this new town, then yes, you're kind of SOL. However, it's not too wild to think of a way for credit history and verified identity from one bank branch to be stored in some kind of software system, which could share data between branches. The initial work in establishing trust is annoying, but verifying identity once you have some system in place is easy enough. A short phone or video call with someone who _did_ know you and works within the same institution would be a pretty sufficient way to go about it. Hell, universities have an even more archaic way of doing this: if you need proof of enrollment or a transcript then the university will send sealed snail mail to whatever institution needs the information. You can even request and deliver these yourself personally, if you want to.
Perhaps "personal" is the wrong word for the kind of relationship you want to describe though. Your relationship with the bank as an institution is independent of any SSN, they just track any credit or debt to your identity using it. There's no reason why a single number needs to track that kind of information, when the banks could just be required to verify their own knowledge of you themselves. At some point we have to admit that someone at the bank must know you, or be able to vouch that who you are is who you say you are. Even just a second check of a photo of you compared to a face scan would be more than what's verified now.
If you are using a different bank in this new town, then yes, you're kind of SOL. However, it's not too wild to think of a way for credit history and verified identity from one bank branch to be stored in some kind of software system, which could share data between branches. The initial work in establishing trust is annoying, but verifying identity once you have some system in place is easy enough. A short phone or video call with someone who _did_ know you and works within the same institution would be a pretty sufficient way to go about it. Hell, universities have an even more archaic way of doing this: if you need proof of enrollment or a transcript then the university will send sealed snail mail to whatever institution needs the information. You can even request and deliver these yourself personally, if you want to.
Perhaps "personal" is the wrong word for the kind of relationship you want to describe though. Your relationship with the bank as an institution is independent of any SSN, they just track any credit or debt to your identity using it. There's no reason why a single number needs to track that kind of information, when the banks could just be required to verify their own knowledge of you themselves. At some point we have to admit that someone at the bank must know you, or be able to vouch that who you are is who you say you are. Even just a second check of a photo of you compared to a face scan would be more than what's verified now.