Another entrant rethinking the banking model is BankSimple, a company that proclaims "We're not a bank. We're better." BankSimple's premise is to advocate for customers in ways that a traditional bank cannot. Traditional banks earn money on deposits. BankSimple builds new interfaces to make interacting with your money simpler and easier, and uses the scale of its customer base to influence deposit-taking institutions to be more transparent and efficient. (Think of BankSimple like an AARP that's also part FDIC). BankSimple's next mission is make accessing your money free in 300,000 ATMs throughout the U.S. Given that GroupOn is arguably the fastest-growing company in history, BankSimple might be on to something. 

This is an article focused on a few of the companies I've mentioned recently. I've found that technology is brilliantly re-inventing all of our current systems. 10 years ago, Google/Wikipedia were starting to reinvent how we found information. Myspace/Facebook/Twitter reinvented how we connect with friends... and now it's hitting banking.

I personally think it's high time for change in the banking system. I can find brilliant web apps that can help me budget, plan out my week, organize my life... I can even scan barcodes from my phone and see if I'm getting a great deal. But with banks... I still go to the bank to deposit a check... why? I'm still paying fees to withdraw cash... why do I get charged? For what? And why do I need cash in the first place anyways? To find out how much money is in my account, I need to sort through a "Current Balance," "Available Balance," and then figure out whether anything went through over the weekend. I can't find that info on the go... so I plan time in the day to look at it.

It's strange really. Now, I know if I were to balance my checkbook I could always know exactly where I'm at and all this is a moot point... but gee wiz, I haven't gone through a whole checkbook... EVER. Weird.

I'm by no means advocating financial ignorance... not at all. But I do think technology can work better for us.

So,,,, I've signed up for BankSimple and can't wait until it's available.

Let me know what you think. This is fascinating to me... but then, I often am accused of "Geeking out" on random topics.

:)

Ian