Do High Street Banks Take The Weekend Off?

[DXP55]

I now use our local PO to draw or pay money into my bank -By time I walk home and check my account its done - withdrawn or paid in.
It's now the best banking service I have had.
This is with HSBC.

 

[englishpremier]

The Fintech challengers have a massive advantage as they have been able to build things from the ground up. There is a lot more risk in messing around with established and/or vendor-supplied solutions.

As mentioned before, you'd be horrified at how old some of the systems running in a lot of modern banks are now. You're talking a timeframe of several years for big migrations in many cases.

It's nice that we're seeing some of the modern features come along though. Nationwide meet my needs for my main account but I use Starling for spending which is ace.

Rather than the traditional banks putting a fintech face/brand on a some new accounts and features, they could build a new system in a spin off from the ground up, like some of the digital banks have, then switch to that as their main system. Sure it's a lot of the work, but if threw money at it say 50% of profits, each year, then they would get there. For Barclays that would be nearly £500m a year. Every fintech bank has started with a tiny fraction of that.

Starling's whole bank is on a Amazon cloud system in Dublin.

What happens when Amazon cuts them off, pulls the plug or some other random happening? Also, in Dublin so in the EU, but when the UK leaves the EU will personal banking data be allowed to be not only processed but stored off shore? Sounds like a national security risk

 

[Hades]

but when the UK leaves the EU will personal banking data be allowed to be not only processed but stored off shore? Sounds like a national security risk

The UK has already left the EU I asusme you mean when the transition period ends.

 

[englishpremier]

The UK has already left the EU I asusme you mean when the transition period ends.

Yes, as for now there's no real change

 

[Terminal_Boy]

You willing to pay for normal banking?

You mean like most European bank customers do?

 

[Werewolf]

You mean like most European bank customers do?

Yup
And IIRC every time it's been suggested it happen over here there has been an outcry, not least because it typically then screws over the low income and unemployed who need bank accounts but don't usually have much to spare (IE you're expected to have a bank account for JSA to be paid into, if you're only getting ~£70 a week in JSA you can't really afford £10-20 a month for banking).

 

[englishpremier]

Paying for a bank account is a difficult one, as they are making money from you. No deposits equals no lending.

It's a bit like paying for rubbish collection in council tax, then the company that collects rubbish not only gets paid by the council but also get's paid when they sell the rubbish for recycling. Double bonus for them.

One could argue that the intial fee is subsidised by the latter. With banks, I doubt it. I bet their income from loans, credit and mortgages, far exceeds the cost of running a standard current account.

 

[dowie]

Also the Fintech banks, don't have the debt laden down by mortgages, and loans, that the traditional banks do. So all their money goes into the flashy things. Again that is slowly changing, but when they first started they couldn't provide overdrafts, as they were not able to provide loans & lending services. So they have excelled at just one function of a traditional bank.

Mortgages and loans are assets from the Bank's perspective, they're certainly not "laden down" by them.

 

[Eurofighter]

They already have your money to earn intest from, you would think that would be enough

 

[dowie]

Yup
And IIRC every time it's been suggested it happen over here there has been an outcry, not least because it typically then screws over the low income and unemployed who need bank accounts but don't usually have much to spare (IE you're expected to have a bank account for JSA to be paid into, if you're only getting ~£70 a week in JSA you can't really afford £10-20 a month for banking).

Indeed, frankly for what they might need to use the account for it's a bit of a rip off...

 

[Efour]

You should count yourselves lucky my local bank branch opens for 4h a day on weekdays and doesn't even handle cash....(not that it's a problem for most Swedes)

There's 1 ATM and a secure drop for business.

I can't even remember the last time I used a physical bank for money... Maybe when I was 16?

I pay about 25 quid a year to have a debit card.
15 quid to do direct debits.
Whilst it's not a lot, it's not like free UK banking.

 

[HEADRAT]

Starling's whole bank is on a Amazon cloud system in Dublin.

I would hope they don't and there is some "redundancy"

 

[Narj]

I would hope they don't and there is some "redundancy"

Pretty sure they would have built up redundancy in another zone or with another provider (again the same questions with regs).

I do wonder how long it will be before nefarious people hack their way to the metaphorical big red button on a cloud provider. Surely the target now is admin panels, or provider tier kit. It's going to be interesting when it does happen.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Yup
And IIRC every time it's been suggested it happen over here there has been an outcry, not least because it typically then screws over the low income and unemployed who need bank accounts but don't usually have much to spare (IE you're expected to have a bank account for JSA to be paid into, if you're only getting ~£70 a week in JSA you can't really afford £10-20 a month for banking).

Our French bank account is €7.40 a month because I wanted 2 cards (immediate debit and deferred debit), online banking and a separate account for the gite business.

I’m fairly certain that a basic account with just a cheque book (yes, cheques are still widely used out here) and a low limit debit card is €3 a month or less.

 

[DustyMiller]

Mortgages and loans are assets from the Bank's perspective, they're certainly not "laden down" by them.

I think after the last crash where Northern Rock almost went under, and the governement has to step in and throw billions of pounds of taxpayers money to prop up some of our biggest high street banks, that that position is not entirely correct.

 

[dowie]

I think after the last crash where Northern Rock almost went under, and the governement has to step in and throw billions of pounds of taxpayers money to prop up some of our biggest high street banks, that that position is not entirely correct.

Nope, that just highlights the issue with them no longer having easy access to short term money markets thanks to the credit crunch... that the mortgages are assets from the bank's perspective is unchanged.