Matt Thinks about starting a Bank

Matt Mullenweg has a great post called Starting a Bank and I’d love it if he would think more about it. Of course having used Citibank some time ago, I know how much US banking interfaces must suck, at least compared to stuff like Comdirect. In Germany Ficoba might actually be going down that route a little bit.

What the focus should be is really a bank by the people for the people. Hell, make it a non profit if you have to. Many people would love to have somebody take care of their money in a transparent way. Possibly the system could even use other banks. e.g. if you want to trade stocks, you can do so but it will be handled via different systems wherever it is cheapest. Above that it would be all public what costs the bank what and you just carry that cost and add something like $5 per month just because you get everything very cheap and how no hidden costs.

Then add the Mint way to give you suggestions on how to save money. There would be a lot of ways to make money and if it could be bootstrapped then you wouldn’t need to please investors. Can it possibly even be open source?

Maybe you take two companies, like one building the first bank based on the second company that just has APIs and acts more like a VISA system. Creating a standard that any new bank can use. But there are most likely already banking services available somewhere.

Please continue thinking people. This is one market really in need of some radical changes.