4 ms·

Am I the only one who is shocked to discover that payments (even very small sums) are stored for years on end, maybe indefinite?? Simple deleting a row that is

Am I the only one who is shocked to discover that payments (even very small sums) are stored for years on end, maybe indefinite?? Simple deleting a row that is 366 days old is not an option to keep the PostgreSQL DB relatively small?

cabraca 6y ago
Thats not shocking. Its probably due to regulatory laws that transactions are saved that long.
- xmaayy 6y ago
  But they don't need to be in the active DB right? Auditing and reporting can be done on an immutable database, while transactions are processed on a smaller active one.
wdb 6y ago
It’s a regulatory requirement keep it for 5-7 years e.g for disputes etc
- KptMarchewa 6y ago
  Just to add to this: GDPR does not apply here.
  - wdb 6y ago
    Yups, that's correct
  - detaro 6y ago
    That's a bad way of putting it: GDPR obviously applies, but it permits storing data that needs to be stored due to other legal obligations. If "GDPR didn't apply", it would also loose all the other protections GDPR provides, which it doesn't.
- PeterisP 6y ago
  It's worth noting that it's not necessarily specific to bank payments, depending on your jurisdiction it may be that general accounting laws that require every company to store payment history for at least 5 years, for example. To add on that, for some types of transaction the regulatory requirements are much, much longer - I was working in a jurisdiction where data of housing loan repayments had to be stored, by law, for 70 years after the end of the loan; so for a 30-year mortgage you'd have to be prepared to store every repayment for 100 years; and information on salaries calculated and paid has to be stored for 75 years (IMHO to resolve retirement-related disputes where it matters where you worked decades ago), passing on to national archive if the company is dissolved.

4 ms·

Am I the only one who is shocked to discover that payments (even very small sums) are stored for years on end, maybe indefinite?? Simple deleting a row that is

by janandonly 6y ago

cabraca 6y ago
Thats not shocking. Its probably due to regulatory laws that transactions are saved that long.
- xmaayy 6y ago
  But they don't need to be in the active DB right? Auditing and reporting can be done on an immutable database, while transactions are processed on a smaller active one.
wdb 6y ago
It’s a regulatory requirement keep it for 5-7 years e.g for disputes etc
- KptMarchewa 6y ago
  Just to add to this: GDPR does not apply here.
  - wdb 6y ago
    Yups, that's correct
  - detaro 6y ago
    That's a bad way of putting it: GDPR obviously applies, but it permits storing data that needs to be stored due to other legal obligations. If "GDPR didn't apply", it would also loose all the other protections GDPR provides, which it doesn't.
- PeterisP 6y ago
  It's worth noting that it's not necessarily specific to bank payments, depending on your jurisdiction it may be that general accounting laws that require every company to store payment history for at least 5 years, for example. To add on that, for some types of transaction the regulatory requirements are much, much longer - I was working in a jurisdiction where data of housing loan repayments had to be stored, by law, for 70 years after the end of the loan; so for a 30-year mortgage you'd have to be prepared to store every repayment for 100 years; and information on salaries calculated and paid has to be stored for 75 years (IMHO to resolve retirement-related disputes where it matters where you worked decades ago), passing on to national archive if the company is dissolved.