It's a fair point, and I think you're right to be wary of new services.

We debated offering instant account verification for the reasons you mentioned, but we ultimately went with it for the following reasons:

- we don't store any bank credentials on our servers after the verification completes (or fails), and take care to filter it out of any logs etc

- it allows someone to verify an account and start buying bitcoin in just a few minutes instead of 2-3 days (lowers the hurdle to getting started)

- it's the default in the U.S. for services like Paypal so people are somewhat familiar with it

- for anyone who is uncomfortable with it, the challenge deposit verification is available to them (we make two small deposits to your account and ask you to verify the amounts, which take 2-3 days to arrive)

I think you're right that users should be wary of any site asking for such information, so it's up to each user to make their own decision. We at least wanted to provide it as an option given the above precautions. Anyway, even if you don't agree hopefully this better explains our thought process behind it. We'll continue to evaluate whether to keep it along with help from our lawyers, and I appreciate the feedback - really.