4 ms·

It sounds cool, but I don't fully understand: is this a fully-fledged US bank (with a banking license, FDIC insurance, audited,...) that allows you to do all ba

by c7b 4y ago

It sounds cool, but I don't fully understand: is this a fully-fledged US bank (with a banking license, FDIC insurance, audited,...) that allows you to do all banking transactions through an API, or is this a framework that you can use if you are already a bank to expose all your transactions through an API, or something else?

Ayesh 4y ago
I think they provide a backend so you can issue your own cards, with bank accounts routable through normal banking systems. Payoneer famously rely on third party "back-end" banks for their services, as they issue cards, offer routable bank accounts, cash withdrawal, etc. This is an extremely niche use case of course, but it's not the first time they popped up on HN at least. In mobile ISPs, MVNOs are quite common, and there is a large amount of customer base because they simplify KYC, sales, and customer on-boarding. Technically, this API should provide the platform to build a similar "Virtual bank". I do not think anybody without a significant technical and financial resources will be able to pull it off. Another use case I can think of are market places like ebay, Amazon, Aliexpress, etc. Each seller receive a bank account that they get their payments deposited to, and can be withdrawn from their branded card. I do not see this being a commercially viable option for many, because pretty much every country has free or almost free systems in place to simply transfer money, and not take the unnecessary burden of issue cards, maintaining bank accounts, etc. Payoneer used to run a similar program, with branded cards, custom fee structures, etc, but it eventually failed as far as I know.
- chadash 4y ago
  curl -X "POST" \ --url https://api.increase.com/check_transfers \ -H "Authorization: Bearer ${INCREASE_API_KEY}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d $'{ "account_id": "account0", "address_line1": "33 Liberty Street", "address_city": "New York", "address_state": "NY", "address_zip": "10045", "amount": 1000, "message": "Check payment", "recipient_name": "Ian Crease" }' Well it would certainly be nice if I can send a rent check from my command line!
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - chirau 4y ago
    It would also be nice to pay only 1k in rent at 33 Liberty St. :)
  - tzs 4y ago
    > Well it would certainly be nice if I can send a rent check from my command line! ...until you accidentally do it again when trying to re-invoke some other command from your command history.
  - fatneckbeardz 4y ago
    you do not have an address line 2 you do not have an address line 3 the amount data type is not clear (is that an integer representing pennies, is it a floating point? shouldnt be using floating point for banking) recipient name is not broken up into first name, middle name, last name. are you users going to be putting "last, first" as well as "first last"? if you sent that from the command line, then your banking information would be in your bash history, saved on disk etc etc etc etc
    - rattray 4y ago
      They have good docs, and return good error messages. Bash history can be cleared about as easily as other places people routinely put similar information.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
They are not a full-fledged bank, they partner with banks to provide the FDIC insurance, etc. There are a number of competitors in this "Banking as a Service" API space like Treasury Prime and Galileo.
sverhagen 4y ago
There's always a real bank backing this, and they are going to throw up requirements. Seems Increase is calling them "partner banks" (Blue Ridge, First Internet). If you're using this API, presumably you would have to get KYB'd, give insight into your books, and commit to certain minimum volumes. This is not Stripe. But maybe I'm wrong (very possible).

by c7b 4y ago

Ayesh 4y ago

I think they provide a backend so you can issue your own cards, with bank accounts routable through normal banking systems. Payoneer famously rely on third party "back-end" banks for their services, as they issue cards, offer routable bank accounts, cash withdrawal, etc. This is an extremely niche use case of course, but it's not the first time they popped up on HN at least. In mobile ISPs, MVNOs are quite common, and there is a large amount of customer base because they simplify KYC, sales, and customer on-boarding. Technically, this API should provide the platform to build a similar "Virtual bank". I do not think anybody without a significant technical and financial resources will be able to pull it off. Another use case I can think of are market places like ebay, Amazon, Aliexpress, etc. Each seller receive a bank account that they get their payments deposited to, and can be withdrawn from their branded card. I do not see this being a commercially viable option for many, because pretty much every country has free or almost free systems in place to simply transfer money, and not take the unnecessary burden of issue cards, maintaining bank accounts, etc. Payoneer used to run a similar program, with branded cards, custom fee structures, etc, but it eventually failed as far as I know.

chadash 4y ago
curl -X "POST" \ --url https://api.increase.com/check_transfers \ -H "Authorization: Bearer ${INCREASE_API_KEY}" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d $'{ "account_id": "account0", "address_line1": "33 Liberty Street", "address_city": "New York", "address_state": "NY", "address_zip": "10045", "amount": 1000, "message": "Check payment", "recipient_name": "Ian Crease" }' Well it would certainly be nice if I can send a rent check from my command line!
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- chirau 4y ago
  It would also be nice to pay only 1k in rent at 33 Liberty St. :)
- tzs 4y ago
  > Well it would certainly be nice if I can send a rent check from my command line! ...until you accidentally do it again when trying to re-invoke some other command from your command history.
- fatneckbeardz 4y ago
  you do not have an address line 2 you do not have an address line 3 the amount data type is not clear (is that an integer representing pennies, is it a floating point? shouldnt be using floating point for banking) recipient name is not broken up into first name, middle name, last name. are you users going to be putting "last, first" as well as "first last"? if you sent that from the command line, then your banking information would be in your bash history, saved on disk etc etc etc etc
  - rattray 4y ago
    They have good docs, and return good error messages. Bash history can be cleared about as easily as other places people routinely put similar information.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

hn_throwaway_99 4y ago

They are not a full-fledged bank, they partner with banks to provide the FDIC insurance, etc. There are a number of competitors in this "Banking as a Service" API space like Treasury Prime and Galileo.

sverhagen 4y ago

There's always a real bank backing this, and they are going to throw up requirements. Seems Increase is calling them "partner banks" (Blue Ridge, First Internet). If you're using this API, presumably you would have to get KYB'd, give insight into your books, and commit to certain minimum volumes. This is not Stripe. But maybe I'm wrong (very possible).