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Thanks for sharing this story. I used to have a job working with poor and homeless people, and the lack of banking services available to our clients was really

Thanks for sharing this story. I used to have a job working with poor and homeless people, and the lack of banking services available to our clients was really frustrating, especially because on top of getting ripped off by check cashers, homeless people carrying around an entire benefit check in cash were frequently targeted for theft. My roommate runs a company called Bee (http://www.beecard.us http://www.beecard.us) that's working to put check cashers out of business and provide banking services for people who wouldn't otherwise have them, and its one of the best uses of technology to solve a real social problem I've seen.

Terr_ 11y ago
There are also various proposals to restore somethign like the old US Postal Savings System [0], where post-offices would (not for the first time) provide very basic bank-services. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Savings_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Savings_S...
- serge2k 11y ago
  I wonder if you could build a viable bank/credit union with the specific focus to provide free/extremely lost cost banking to persons who otherwise don't have access. Perhaps subsidized by patrons with more money.
  - bitwize 11y ago
    This has been done. Remember the 2008 housing crisis? That's what the bad MBSes were: subsidizing those who couldn't make their mortgage payments with money from those who could, by packaging the bad loans and good loans together. I know we're talking about checking accounts. That was tried too -- it was called Washington Mutual, and they were my bank when I was finding my legs out in Portland, OR. Free checking account, no questions asked? Sure, I'll take that. Biggest bank crash in U.S. history. So no, such a financial institution is not viable as such. It would have to be run explicitly as a charity. There are no easy solutions here. To change the situation will require multiphasic, multipartite, cultural AND systemic efforts.
    - shimn 11y ago
      > I know we're talking about checking accounts. That was tried too -- it was called Washington Mutual, Is there evidence to suggest the "free checking account no questions asked" was large portion of it being one of the "Biggest Bank crash in U.S. history". It looks like Washington Mutual crashed for the same reason the others did: it had all this loans out on people who couldn't pay them. Not because it offered checking/savings accounts to underprivileged. It's weird you reference the 2008 collapse then fail to mention that being the exact time when WaMu crashed.

Terr_ 11y ago

There are also various proposals to restore somethign like the old US Postal Savings System [0], where post-offices would (not for the first time) provide very basic bank-services. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Savings_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Savings_S...

serge2k 11y ago
I wonder if you could build a viable bank/credit union with the specific focus to provide free/extremely lost cost banking to persons who otherwise don't have access. Perhaps subsidized by patrons with more money.
- bitwize 11y ago
  This has been done. Remember the 2008 housing crisis? That's what the bad MBSes were: subsidizing those who couldn't make their mortgage payments with money from those who could, by packaging the bad loans and good loans together. I know we're talking about checking accounts. That was tried too -- it was called Washington Mutual, and they were my bank when I was finding my legs out in Portland, OR. Free checking account, no questions asked? Sure, I'll take that. Biggest bank crash in U.S. history. So no, such a financial institution is not viable as such. It would have to be run explicitly as a charity. There are no easy solutions here. To change the situation will require multiphasic, multipartite, cultural AND systemic efforts.
  - shimn 11y ago
    > I know we're talking about checking accounts. That was tried too -- it was called Washington Mutual, Is there evidence to suggest the "free checking account no questions asked" was large portion of it being one of the "Biggest Bank crash in U.S. history". It looks like Washington Mutual crashed for the same reason the others did: it had all this loans out on people who couldn't pay them. Not because it offered checking/savings accounts to underprivileged. It's weird you reference the 2008 collapse then fail to mention that being the exact time when WaMu crashed.