This may be America's smallest bank, but there are smaller credit unions! From what I can tell, Holy Trinity Baptist Federal Credit Union is the smallest, operating since 1966 with about $16k in deposits according to their EOY 2022 financial report: <a href="https://ncuso.org/credit-union/17269/financials/" rel="nofollow">https://ncuso.org/credit-union/17269/financials/</a>
<p><pre><code> Sammons, the fourth generation of his family to run the 100-plus-year-old S&L and its only full-time employee, confides that he’s a bit tech-averse. “Computers are great when they work,” says the 55-year-old, laughing. “I don’t have the patience for them.”
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Most days I bet most of us would agree with that statement!
I think the regulatory pressure to consolidate is well known by the Fed leadership, and they've at least announced a desire to protect small institutions and do more to encourage de novo institutions[0].<p>But I disagree with the idea that Dodd-Frank in particular has much to do with encouraging smaller banks to consolidate, considering its provisions kick in at defined levels of capitalization. The practice of "charter stripping", which is when fintech/crypto startups purchase a small community bank for their Federal banking charter and discard the rest, probably has a bit more impact, and that's exactly what relaxing the rules against de novo charters would alleviate.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.bankingdive.com/news/federal-reserve-governor-Michelle-bowman-de-novo-banks/647832/" rel="nofollow">https://www.bankingdive.com/news/federal-reserve-governor-Mi...</a>
<i>> According to Roger Lowenstein, a financial journalist and author of America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve, bank regulations used to protect small lenders in particular—in the 1930s you couldn’t have more than one branch or operate across state lines.</i><p>I say we bring this back. Split up the "too big to fail" ultrabanks.
How viable is a bank, which offers exactly:<p>* No physical bank branch. Only online banking<p>* a current account with a monthly fee<p>* a debit card that can be used at other banks' ATM - monthly fee.<p>* Debit card can't be directly used online. But you can generate merchant specific card numbers on the website.<p>Say, your monthly fee is $20. Then 4000 customers brings in a million dollars an year. How much is spent on fraud by a bank every year?<p>Could a single person with a few part-time contractors run a bank of this nature?
I have bank accounts in 3 different countries and none of them have any fees either.<p>What they have thought is redundant documentation of my funds that guarantee I won't be SoL when the building burns down with the paper ledger in it like this bank here.<p>I really don't understand this fascination or even admiration for outdated ways.
With an aversion to technology, i really wonder how this bank supports electronic transfers like ATM, ACH, wires etc. Is there a core banking system running?
There's a nice documentary from 2002 about Germany's smallest bank, which also doesn't use computers:
<a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schotter_wie_Heu" rel="nofollow">https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schotter_wie_Heu</a>
I like my credit union, no fees, good support (in person though...), easy to setup accounts. It's a little dated it feels like but the app is reasonable, with so many type of banking options I'm surprised people would use a bank with fees. I've been using Chime for years with no issues, online banks work for me just fine. I can understand a little more though when it comes to international travel because there tends to be more restrictions, I have a small chase account for international travel as the card just seems to work better but I rarely use that account and would probably close it if I found a better international debt card.
Or just use Fidelity, which has 0 fee as well. Free wire transfers, free ATM reimbursements etc. On another side, it actually has branches scattered throughout too.