We live in a time where we see digital unpersoning, both financially and socially. The wave is growing larger, and thankfully it is also waking people up to their dependence on multiple systems as well as the feasibility of alternatives.
Today I was thinking about "its a private company, if you don't like it, start your own X" specifically the "start your own bank"
Start your own bank is usually used as a joke, especially as a response to what seems like the 'most shocking' of all deplatforming, which is closing business accounts. It's viewed as horrible because "how will a person live without bank of america etc."
I have had the blessing from God to be able to work with entrepreneurs that on a regular basis throw the veil of of what seems like "the impossible". Complex companies, making lots of money, with shiny exteriors that really under the hood are just a few guys at computers employing a few other people that are mostly expendable. I don't work with any bank insiders so I decided to start googling...how hard is it really to start your own bank?
Today I was thinking about "its a private company, if you don't like it, start your own X" specifically the "start your own bank"
Start your own bank is usually used as a joke, especially as a response to what seems like the 'most shocking' of all deplatforming, which is closing business accounts. It's viewed as horrible because "how will a person live without bank of america etc."
I have had the blessing from God to be able to work with entrepreneurs that on a regular basis throw the veil of of what seems like "the impossible". Complex companies, making lots of money, with shiny exteriors that really under the hood are just a few guys at computers employing a few other people that are mostly expendable. I don't work with any bank insiders so I decided to start googling...how hard is it really to start your own bank?
- Filter 1 was immediately changing the idea of bank, to credit union. Credit unions seem to be smaller time operations and also seem to be able to restrict their membership.
- A credit union actually has to filter its membership. It has to serve a specific geographic area, or group of people. For example, there used to be hundreds of catholic credit unions in america that served their local memberships exclusively
- You can operate at a very small scale. There is a black baptist church in Milwaukee that has a credit union that has less than 200 members and under $200,000 in assets under management. It's run out of the church basement and only offers savings accounts.
- You can have very few members. The minimum number of members to charter a federal credit union is 7 people.
- There is special credit/help for credit unions that serve low income depositors and/or minorities (I shouldn't have been surprised at that one)
- You can have a federal or state charter. A state charter was especially interesting if balkanization gets worse. That is a Florida chartered christian credit union would probably get less grief than one with a federal charter.
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