Why we hate banks

By Shahar Larry, CEO, Tinker — Manage Disruption

Hi Y’all. Me again.

Quick note: To be clear, reading this text, it may seem at times like a libertarian manifesto. I do not identify myself with the libertarian movement — although I do think some of its claims have merit.

We don’t like banks.

People, the general public, don’t like banks. Everybody knows that. No one misses a beat when someone says: “I hate my bank”. The thing is that we, and especially people working at commercial banks, tend to grossly and dramatically underestimate the intensity of the animosity people have towards banks and bankers. The reason for this underestimation is the infrequency of our interactions with banks and (paradoxically) the intensity of the associated emotions (people don’t like to remember or deal with intense pain). We HATE our bank and our banker in very short bursts of extremely strong feelings.

This intense, concentrated emotion is a mixture of almost everything we fear and hate. Dealing with the bank, whether it is sitting with a person, getting a letter or an email or talking to customer service makes us feel:

Most of the time we don’t think about it. Most of the time things are fine. Most of the time we don’t worry about the fact that everything can change in a second and that we are at the mercy of our bank. But every now and then something happens and we realize that we are discounted, manipulated and controlled by the banks.

Examples of simple arbitrary things banks do to us: monthly service fees, ATM fees, overdraft fees, minimum balance requirements, low rates on interest-bearing accounts, high interest on loans, poor customer service.

Important note: Banks seem to be unaware of the severity of the problem. They conduct surveys that show that people are happy. One reason for this dissonance between the terrible feeling induced by the banks and the often favorable views is a sort of Stockholm Syndrome. We are “tied” to the banks. We are literally indebted to them. We are not surveyed immediately after we are wronged by the banks. It would be interesting the analyze feelings customers have towards banks right after an interaction, using emotion detection technologies such as voice and facial expression analysis.

Here are some facts I gathered from various sources (list below). I know that these “stats” should be taken with a grain of salt and I am not claiming them to be the gospel. Still, they paint a picture:

Millennials believe innovation will come from outside the industry — Nearly half are counting on tech start-ups to overhaul the way banks work.

Fintech and financial innovation, blockchain financial applications and the cryptocurrency ecosystem and tokenization trend, all mark a new path of people expressing their discontent and employing ICT to redefine the balance of power. It is incredible to see and it is why I think this is not going away. Tapping into fear and loathing is easy and the centralized financial institution spent centuries fanning this flame.

Remember this: Asking a random person on the street about their bank may not yield horrible feelings, but look for the frequency of people losing their shit while in the branch; count the number of smiles there.

When I scan the industry I look for solutions that facilitate the use of alternatives to the banking services — the first and foremost being the currency we use for transactions.

Sources:

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