An investor in a startup I was working for made his way onto the board of a local (small town) bank. He was already very wealthy from real-estate. He was quite proud of himself for making it onto the board of that small bank. It seemed odd to me because he was already so wealthy, he didn't really need to be on that tiny bank board.
I asked him about what it took to get onto the board, how one starts a bank and so forth. I'll never forget what he said:
"Owning property is a right, owning a bank is a privilege".
In retrospect that does seem to be in line with how one gets into banking (as an owner) in the United States.
An investor in a startup I was working for made his way onto the board of a local (small town) bank. He was already very wealthy from real-estate. He was quite proud of himself for making it onto the board of that small bank. It seemed odd to me because he was already so wealthy, he didn't really need to be on that tiny bank board.
I asked him about what it took to get onto the board, how one starts a bank and so forth. I'll never forget what he said: "Owning property is a right, owning a bank is a privilege".
In retrospect that does seem to be in line with how one gets into banking (as an owner) in the United States.