Comments on: Who wants low-cost bank accounts?

By: Roy

Roy — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 02:21:11 +0000

Hi Simon, whereas I kinda agree about the value of the background data, monetising it is a different bouilloire de poisson. Just look at the trouble Google got into by inadvertently capturing anonymous data for Streetview. To link search data to purchase data requires very un-anonymous data tracking which would have the privacy brigade marching on Mountain View.

The idea also kinda reaffirms my point that it is difficult to find viable, stand-alone business models for electronic payments via a centralised system. The cost of such a system scales with usage.

From a technology perspective, I see a couple of ways forward:-
1. P2P, either NFC or son-of-bitcoin (depending on when 100%-online becomes a reality)
2. Government backed. For example, I liked your PO idea. Equally HMG could support/encourage an equivalent of BACS for PIs. This would allow PIs to build localised schemes, perhaps based around affinity, but offering equivalent liquidity to cash.

Perhaps somewhere, someday a state will combine 1 and 2. Given the source code of Bitcoin is in the public domain, why wouldn't a country implement a national version of it: Bitrupees anybody?

By: Simon Cavill

Simon Cavill — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 09:28:35 +0000

Hi Roy, I think we are moving to a point of disruption where the intrinsic value of the data behind the payments is worth more than the actual transaction revenue itself…

I fully expect Google to buy a payment processor and offer zero rated transaction fees to major retailers, selling them back the processed data linking the orignal internet search data with the actual in-store card payment transaction – A “Clubcard for the rest of them” as it were….

By: Roy

Roy — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 01:02:49 +0000

The problem is finding a viable business model for the PI. Bank based payment products are free to the purchaser because the banks can make profit via ancillary charges for revolving credit, merchant service charges and interest on deposits. A stand alone PI is disbarred from those (else they'd be a bank).

This leaves PIs trying to levy a transaction charge, which is difficult to 'sell' since the bank based alternatives, and of course cash, are free.

This is why Dave is looking towards retailers and MNO's, and Simon to the PO. I like the PO idea a lot as it leverages existing infrastructure and probably shows a net cost saving to HMG. I'm sure Dave is already preparing the consulting proposal to HM Treasury

By: Simon Cavill

Simon Cavill — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 04:11:15 +0000

Viewing the Banking industry as a "psychopathic vampire squid " is an interesting but rather extreme metaphor. However, it does show the sliding scale of distrust ranging to outright hatred shown by the general public to the entire banking sector and is something they entirely brought on themselves through sheer greed and corporate corruption.

I feel that a move back to Victorian times is possibly required, where Credit Unions, Co-operatives and building societies etc came about to service the millions of working class people that were not being serviced by banks back then. Perhaps a payment account protected by an eMoney licence run by a trusted non-profit making body is the way forward. Step forward the Post Office...???

By: Matthew Slater

Matthew Slater — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:56:12 +0000

The reason bank accounts cost money is because banking is a cartel providing an essential service. They have a licence to issue money and they use it to enrich themselves in as many ways and to the greatest extent they can get away with.
The price of credit should be negotiated with the people taking the risk, which, in the era of perpetual bailout, is not banks!
Payment services should be free like Firefox is free. The unit cost is zero. The way banks help themselves to 'charges' from 'our' accounts without explicit consent would be illegal in any other field of commerce.
The banking industry now produces less than zero value for the economy. It is a psychopathic vampire squid with a government mandate which only subsists because through the lie that its collapse would be the end of civilisation.
I know all those besuited types seem so nice and rational, and some even care about the poor; but the whole is more than the sum of the parts, Dave, the whole is a monster with its heart in London, and it is ravaging societies across the globe.