Comment by tokyodude | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tokyodude | Hacker News Reader

If someone wants to fix banking they should figure out how to do it in Japan. For all of the supposed idea that Japan embraces the future Japan's banking system must be among the worst in the 1st world.

A couple of examples

No interest: A typical interest rate is 0.015%. No that is not a misprint. It's X * 0.00015 annual interest rate (https://www.boj.or.jp/en/statistics/dl/depo/tento/te180516.p...)

No checks: Not sure about other countries but in the USA sending a check to someone usually costs nothing. In Japan checks really don't exist. Instead to send money you do a bank transfer which costs anywhere from $3 to $8 per transaction. For a regular person they might only have 1 payment like that (rent). But for a company that adds up quick. Electronic payment (sign in to your bank, send payment) uses the same $3 to $8 per transaction system.

Byzantine hours: I recently got a business bank account and signed up for the online banking (costs extra). I'm only allowed to send payments from 8am to 3:30pm.

ATMs are still not 24hrs. 7/11 (Shinsei Bank?) and a few others open 24hrs. Most ATMs still close at some point ever day. MUFG ATMs are currently 7am to midnight.

Japan is still a very cash oriented society. They do have things like Felica (digital cash) but getting around with paper cash is not easy. Note, I don't mind the cash thing since cash = anonymous but I know lots of foreigners east and west that are surprised as they can generally get by cashless in their own countries but not here.

I'm not even scratching the surface. I'm sure the people in power and regulations in place make it nearly impossible to fix the system but someone one out there must have a way.

From a European point of view, checks are just a thing of the past. The solution to expensive bank transfers is not using checks (which has its own issues) but just make it cheaper (free) and real-time like in the rest of the world.

Sorry I should have been clearer. My point was not that checks are amazing. My point is checks have been free my parents times in the 60s and 70s. Checks switched to electronic checks in the early 90s. My father hasn't sent a paper check since 1991 when billpay first started and quicken started supporting it.

Free since at least the 70s is in contrast to Japan today which is still $3 to $8 per transaction.

Arguing about whether checks should be free or not is silly.

In many parts of the world, checks are outdated, and can be difficult and expensive to use. That is not a mark of being backwards.

The question is, what services exist to pay business and private citizen in lieu of having cash on hand.

In Denmark you have mobile pay, free bank transfers from your free online banking account. Business can setup monthly payment plans via your debit/credit card.

In such a society, who needs a check, digital or paper?

I'm not arguing checks should be free. I'm arguing sending money should be free. It's been free in the USA longer than my entire life. It's not free in Japan, in fact it's very expensive. Sorry if that wasn't clear. I only brought up checks because they were an example of one way to send money for free and they've been around a long time. That other countries have other ways is great. So has the USA. Japan still has no ways to do it so as I pointed out at the top there's an opportunity.

Interest rates are basically zero all over the world. Its not a banking issue thats an economic issue.

As others point out, checks don't really exist outside the US, but electronic money transfers are usually mandated to be free. Most countries are starting to have some sort of mandated "basic banking" to allow anyone to have and use a bank account as a replacement for cash.

> Interest rates are basically zero all over the world

Interest rates for savings account in India is usually 4% p.a. It’s higher for term deposits.

Is that real (adjusted for inflation rate) or nominal?

Government bonds in Brazil are paying an interest rate of 6.5% per year, which is considered very low by Brazilian standards. Inflation for the past 12 months has been below 3%.

I’ve never lived in Japan, and judging from your username it seems you may have. But, I’d like to point out that on the low interest point you make, this isn’t necessarily a good thing: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/26/japans-deflati....

The interest rate available to consumers is directly related to the rate that banks can borrow from the central bank. The BOJ has had to operate at the ZLB for quite a while: https://www.boj.or.jp/en/announcements/press/koen_2016/data/.... The low interest rates available to consumers are a function of macroeconomic factors and monetary policy, not anything that consumer lending banks themselves do.

Cheap ( < 0.50 ), instant or near instant transfers have completely replaced checks in most of Europe about 20 years ago. I haven't seen a check until I moved to NA.

Every time I use the banking system here I see the same problems I've experienced in the 90's in EU.

Japan

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