Banks

When did 1 + 1 become 2? That was the last time we had a separate bank.

For many centuries it has been known by the wise men in the village that whoever acted as the “banker” for the village or tribe was really just travelling vast distances to make sure that whatever he was trusted with got to its destination. He was very dedicated to this mission, so dedicated that he would agree to do it on a regular basis. Soon enough, he would make a trip once a year, or once a month, whatever was required.

In today’s world, as we watch the dollars and cents fly across the CNBC screen every morning, we see the opinions of the world’s top bankers. Guys who run places like Credit Suisse, Wells Fargo, and Bank of Japan. In truth these gentlemen can do something very sophisticated called…sending one another an email.

We begin to ask ourselves why we bank at one bank as opposed to another. What is it that makes me go there instead of here? Well, in my market, a mid-market in the USA, I have accounts at one credit union, and two banks. One of the banks has a branch next to the credit union, and the other bank. The size of all three is quite large, except the bank I use for my business, the one that is a neighbor to the other two, is the largest in the world.

People use something they want to consider as separate banks. Unfortunately, the entire world has always run on something called “word of mouth”. That means no matter where you are, who you are, what you have done, you can be considered as someone who is not worth doing business with a bank. That means that this world has never for one second had anything that can be considered any “separation” of trust.

Now, you may think that trust is a boyfriend/girlfriend thing. In truth, trust is what makes the world move. If all of us think we will die, watch as we slowly kill each other as outlined in the previous chapter. We will simply not believe each other has the others’ best interests at heart. Then we will turn on each other and conflict will get worse and worse. It happens between friends, spouses, governments…everywhere.

The concept of separate banks is exactly that, a concept. When you stand at a four way intersection in Mecca, and see Bank of Punjab, Bank of Mujab, Bank of Punam, and Bank of Tajib…you may as well be in New York City, where we have Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Wachovia.

Oh wait, Wachovia changed into WF in 2009 because the world’s government decided a recession was necessary.