[rsynnott]

In which being your own bank continues to be undesirable.

(Never understood why ‘be your own bank’ was meant to be at all appealing. Being a bank is terrible. And still realistically less risky than this sort of thing; apart from truly bizarre edge cases (see the Citi/Revlon drama), this sort of thing simply can’t happen.)

[fragmede]

Well, they have a lot of money, and if you're morally flexible, as anyone who's played the banker in a family game of Monopoly can tell you, you can just take some.

[kwar13]

How is being a bank terrible? It's one of the most profitable businesses ever and continues to be.

[rsynnott]

… Wait, what? I mean, possibly if you’re a large investment bank , those can be quite profitable (until they’re abruptly not; see 2008). Retail banks (which the ‘be your own bank’ people are presumably referring to; if you want to be your own investment bank you can just skip the ‘bank’ bit) are generally not particularly profitable.

[andruby]

Being a stable working bank is really really hard. Most people don't have the knowledge, time or desire to do that.

For 99+ % of the world's population using fiat currency is simple and the learning curve is basic school maths.