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The app was aimed at people who saw Wall Street as too liberal and wanted a bank that shared their values. I'll ignore the likely wildly-inaccurate base assump
by mikestew 4y ago
The app was aimed at people who saw Wall Street as too liberal and wanted a bank that shared their values.
I'll ignore the likely wildly-inaccurate base assumptions, and cut to the shared-values part: "DO NOT fuck with my money". There ya go, you share that value, perhaps we can do business. Hopefully you have a good app, and reasonable loan rates, and hey, maybe I'll transfer my mortgage over or look to you for my next car loan.
But you will absolutely not get a penny of my money if your catch line is "we're not 'woke' like those other fuckers". I'm seriously having trouble coming up with why I'd care about that. Maybe the schtick is "the bank's profits will go to liberal causes!", I dunno. Seems like a weird thing to hang your hat on. I'd say that the market apparently agrees, but again if that's the schtick, then I'm willing to believe the company had no business handling the money of others, and would have gone under regardless.
- djbusby 4y agoWhat's the ROI on woke vs non-woke (or is it anti-woke). Maybe Woke is trying a "virtuous" modus, non-woke is agnostic and anti-woke is the opposite of the Woke one? Is there any studies around that?
- dylan604 4y ago>woke vs non-woke (or is it anti-woke). asleep?
- advisedwang 4y agoIsn't "do not fuck with my money" basically the default in the consumer banking space? I've not seen a flicker of SJW stuff form any bank or credit union (until maybe you choose yourself to invest in ESG). "good app, and reasonable loan rates" is kind of what banks already compete on
- wmf 4y agoThere were stories about consumer banks dropping people simply for using crypto so risk modeling is definitely happening and it does vary from bank to bank. I haven't heard enough such stories to justify an "anti-woke" bank though.
- advisedwang 4y agoI assume in any cases like that banks are dropping customers because of regulatory risk (KYC or whatever), so there's not much of an alternative? "We are playing fast and loose with regulation" is not reassuring to most people that are looking for safe and secure finance (ie "don't fuck with my money")
- wmf 4y agoRegulatory risk is a spectrum and banks can definitely decide where they want to be on that spectrum.
- llanowarelves 4y agoIt's usually the layer above that has issues: PayPal. Who even some of the "wokest" on here have had the same issues with.
- hakfoo 4y agoThat could be the "long con" version of this. A bank that says "we'll continue to lend and invest in unfashionable clients (i. e. fossil fuels and defense contractors) even when others won't" is an actual business strategy which can be evaluated. However, I suspect they never got further than the marketing sound bite.
- happytoexplain 4y ago>Seems like a weird thing to hang your hat on That's identity politics :\
- maxbond 4y agoIdentity politics isn't a dirty word. Most politics is organized around some aspect of shared identity. People with a shared aspect of their identity often have shared problems they want to organize around. Identity politics brought us women's suffrage and marriage equality.