So once they achieve their goal of preventing me from paying someone else $10 without a 3rd party getting a 2-3% fee for the privilege of exchanging money between two private parties, it won't be them getting the 2-3%? Cry me a river.
One-day ACH has been standardized and has begun to be rolled out.
These debit cards very low fees, sometimes they work as both debit and visa card, so you can use them abroad too.
In the US, you only get a piece of the action if you use a credit card. Otherwise you still pay the higher, transaction-fee-included price, but you don't get any part of the transaction fee.
Or I guess the seller pockets the fee.
In NZ for example, folks have their bank account # proudly displayed over a plate of cookies for purchase at 25 cents on a whim.
>free transfers between bank accounts
does it really matter if it was done through some third party service?
Since the first loan was regulated banks have been pushing for a cashless society. Your comment is very much an understatement. It is the holy grail of the financial industry.
Because of the liquidity ratio. Banks are supposed to have 10% of their total lending in cash. This is to prevent a run on the bank.
No cash means banks can lend an infinite amount of money as they aren't bound to the liquidity ratio.
Basically it removes the ceiling from what a bank can earn as there can never be a run on the bank.
A cashless society is about the former, and as far as I know, the 10% limit is about the latter?
(EDIT: I believe in some systems the banks do technically have physical currency in the form of special high value notes, but they're not really cash in any practical sense)
that's not how fractional reserve works. banks have capital requirements (some of which may be cash), not cash requirements. moreover, even if it was somehow cash requirements, they're not obligated to hold physical cash.