Help me achieve my dream....

[Sakura]

Well, when I was a kid, I dreamt of owing several banks. Told my dream to my mom too. She said my dream is way too big and maybe she is right because I haven't owned any bank. The question is, how to start a bank? A financial institution that people would trust putting their money in, then charge them fees

 

[Luzifer]

That's a tall order!

The real way I'm not sure how to start but from what I see online mimicking crypto, they get popular people to promote very high returns, people flock and pour in their money in. Instead of pyramid schemes or what's called rug pulls that money needs to generate revenue to sustain real growth.

Many banks I think rely on car loans, mortgage loans, savings to gain profit a. Then they may invest government bonds and stuff or stock market. The bad people though like private groups called venture capitalist will buy businesses that are failing, cut the fat and hollow the biz to pretend they are profiting then resell the outfit shortly after or run it to the ground. Think "The Bay" the oldest company in Canada of 350 years since colonial period, it was destroyed within a few years.

 

[Sakura]

My bank used the exact scheme you described, promoting it as a reward program. If you keep a certain amount of money in your account each month, you earn points that can be converted into cash. I’m not even sure if that’s legal, but many unsuspecting people put their money into the bank because of it. I doubt they realize the promotion is actually run by another company, possibly a bank subsidiary, meaning their account information is being shared with a third party. So much for privacy.

That unethical and sneaky move against HBC is exactly what happened to a football club in the UK, Manchester United. You have probably heard of it. The so-called investor borrowed heavily from US banks and used a leveraged buyout to acquire the club, just to tap into its revenue. Now the club is buried in debt. They used the revenue profit just to pay back the bank loans so nothing is left in budget to develop the football club. The banking industry feels like a gangster operation, with no ethics and laws that serve their own interests.

I want to build an honest bank that people can actually trust. I do not know how to do it yet, but I am sure that one day I will. One thing is certain, once I build it, I will be targeted by these gangsters, maybe even by local politicians.

 

[REKIII]

Luzi pretty much covered it, but here is my take/experience.

We got involved with a startup bank a bunch of years ago. We were a customer, but learned a lot of the other sides.
3 guys with banking experience got together. One had been a bank president, one a commercial lender specialist and the third was in bank operations. They wanted to create a bank focused on smaller businesses and entrepreneurs. Specifically helping them with SBA (Small Business Association, in the US, established to give government backed loans....its hell to work through, but great if you can get one).

Enter wife and I. We had nothing. They knew that. That had basically nothing., but they were rounding up investors. Basically, 'Hey, deposit a bunch of your money here and we will pay you interest on it'. Then they would take that money and loan it to poors like me and charge more interest on it. The difference in interest was their profit. If you don't have enough investors, and don't give enough loans, banks fail.

The key to their success was the SBA aspect. No normal, established bank would talk to me, but this new bank, dealing with SBA, they helped us. Then 10 years later helped us again. In that 10 years they became the biggest commercial lender in the state. When doing these commercial loans, they also increased their personal banking because all of us commercial customers moved all of our personal lines over. Now we have other banks trying to get us to move our loans and money there. Quite funny.

I have no idea how any of this would work in Japan.....with the whole literal 'Fall on your sword' thing going on. But the key here is to find a niche that often involves more risk and....having the right people in place. For you, if you were willing to take the risk, would be to be an investor and recruiting the right talent.

 

[Sakura]

Very good infos! I believe there are gov backed loans here. Like JFC (Japan Finance Corp). But one problem is they are very, I mean very very very conservative as in they don't approve risk taking. So there are almost no bold startups. Gov here is controlled by larger corporates so less bold startups means less competition. Say if I want to start a car manufacturing company here to compete with Toyota, 1000% I won't get this loan. This is one reason why Japan keeps on falling through the ranks for economic power.