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New Bank.....

PROLIANT
PROLIANT Posts: 6,396 Forumite
1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
in Budgeting & bank accounts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7863825.stm
Since when has the world of computer software design been about what people want? This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.

Comments

  • ShelfStacker_3
    ShelfStacker_3 Posts: 2,180 Forumite
    I do recall such a thing once existed. It was called "Girobank". Then Alliance and Leicester bought it and, well...
  • PROLIANT
    PROLIANT Posts: 6,396 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ShelfStacker wrote: »
    I do recall such a thing once existed. It was called "Girobank". Then Alliance and Leicester bought it and, well...
    Still exists as Giro bank, at least some of my A&L stuff has strong references to Giro.
    The Post Office paying in system is still Giro bank, not sure which way this will go.
    Since when has the world of computer software design been about what people want? This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.
  • ShelfStacker_3
    ShelfStacker_3 Posts: 2,180 Forumite
    Yeah, A&L still use the Girobank name for a few things, like their Bank Giro Credit clearing stuff.
  • PROLIANT
    PROLIANT Posts: 6,396 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    The Post Office bank, they would have to invest billions in setting up such an operation, the only feasible way for them to trade as a bank would be to do what allot of Gas and Electric, Mobile Phone and ISP's do, brand a service and piggy back on the £billions of hardware and software systems for a fee.
    Since when has the world of computer software design been about what people want? This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.
  • Mikeyorks
    Mikeyorks Posts: 10,377 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    The Govt have been 'mulling this over' for at least 8 years. 'Banking the unbanked' was how it started out .... in an attempt to reduce local PO closures as the Govt moved away from 'Giros' et al. Didn't work well ... so they're dusting it off for another try?
    Currently, savings accounts, mortgages and other retail services are being provided by the Bank of Ireland through the Post Office.

    ..... but I think they're moving away from Anglo Irish having a part in the new system? ;)
    If you want to test the depth of the water .........don't use both feet !
  • Extant
    Extant Posts: 2,140 Forumite
    This would probably be a good idea if they hadn't already spend millions bribing the banks to offer "universal banking" already.
    What would William Shatner do?
  • maxsquared
    maxsquared Posts: 128 Forumite
    Is this really the end of caplitalism? Post office bank what next?
  • Mikeyorks
    Mikeyorks Posts: 10,377 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    maxsquared wrote: »
    Post office bank what next?

    As post #2 ..... it's nothing new. GiroBank (the original 'Post Office' Bank) was actually the architect of interest paying current accounts - basically unheard of until then.

    But it was also known as 'the people's bank' (going back to Post #1) .... as this extract from the Guardian July 03 :

    Twenty five years after prime minister Harold Wilson launched Girobank as the "people's bank", the name is to be dropped in a rebranding exercise.
    Girobank has been long associated with tatty outlets in post offices up and down the country and has its head office in unfashionable Bootle. From today it will be renamed Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank as the former building society, which bought Girobank in 1990, aims to refresh its image.
    Lying behind the move is the slow death of the giro cheque. Girobank is Britain's biggest cash handling bank, processing £1.5bn in notes and coins every week. Much of this comes from the queues of pensioners and unemployed in local post offices cashing their giro cheques.
    If you want to test the depth of the water .........don't use both feet !
  • savagej
    savagej Posts: 1,158 Forumite
    The might use northern rocks banking license and then re-brand the non-mortgage part of the business that I beleive they are selling off anyway as a "universal" or "post office bank".

    Just a thought.
  • naff123
    naff123 Posts: 227 Forumite
    Debt-free and Proud!
    maxsquared wrote: »
    Is this really the end of caplitalism? Post office bank what next?
    If Only me being a Hardcore Socialist :P the recession is the best thing to ever happen to this country
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