I worked for a bank for six and a half years. Banking is like retail in that it's an old, stuffy industry where many of the top dogs long for the days when they could golf every afternoon after closing the branch at two o' clock. Fierce competition has been pushing banks to have retail hours–some banks are even staying until midnight and on Sundays. On the surface, it seems good for consumers to have Taco Bell hours. But I used to work at a 24-hour pharmacy, and the evening clientele were scary enough. Any teller will tell you that banks should be closed at dusk.
In my completely uneducated opinion, I think banks should continue to stay traditional and stuffy at all costs. I read that banks will be allowed to send checks electronically for payment to other banks.
Banks in recent years have had the technology to exchange electronic images of checks, but, because of legal restrictions, broad use of such systems has been impractical. A key provision of Check 21 is elimination of the requirement that, to be paid, a bank must present the paper check to the bank on which it was written, unless the paying bank has agreed otherwise. It also preempts state laws allowing bank customers to demand return of their original checks.
Sure, let's remove all of the physical requirements from the economy. It's so easy to create counterfeit currency, I bet it's even easier to create counterfeit electronic transactions. Sure, high school kids will continue to make money with ink jet printers, but I'm concerned about organized crime and terrorists counterfeiting bank transactions.
I've often wondered how easy it is to hack transactions. There's not a lot of press about this. I'm sure banks don't want you think much about somebody overseas misrouting electronic transfers or spoofing complete bank systems.
Now we have electronic checks where any yahoo can print a counterfeit check at home and present it like the real thing in person. By the time the store figures it out, the perpetrator is in the next town doing the same thing. As complicated as intellectual property law has become in the digital age, the future for digital banking seems even scarier. Imagine attorneys arguing the nuances of server locations, banking networks, and electronic funds transfers (EFT) before the average juror. They will acquit criminals just to keep the migraines at bay.
I think banks should be holding on tightly to past traditions like paper for payment, vaults with cash reserves, and a strong distrust of brand-spanking new technology.
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Long Way From Home by The Heavy