Linux/Ubuntu/Open Source Community Credit Union?

[Nick_Jinn]

I dont know if this goes under the cafe, 3rd party projects or both.....you really need a 'move thread' option instead of just deleting stuff. You would think someone here would be able to cook that option up.


Anyway, I just had an idea.


If there was a credit union, following the co-op model of the Mondragon corporation, and it could give you favorable interest rates compared to commercial banks (They can legally offer up to half a percentage better interest than commercial banks in many places), and they provided loans EXCLUSIVELY for profitable business projects involving linux and open source technology on the condition that they meet the criteria of the co-op (ie, giving back to the open source community, running their company in an egalitarian fashion, maintaining open source ideals, ect), would you put your money in this bank, or perhaps some of your money in here for a second savings or checking account to support such a project?


This is a documentary about Mondragon and the business model that inspired this idea.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7565584850785786404#

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7565584850785786404#docid=-7725698018832368909


It seems to me like its in line with the Philosophy of Ubuntu.

[McRat]

I'd like some Free and Open Source money...

:popcorn:

[Nick_Jinn]

Even though I thought of it, the one thing that would stop me would be convenience.....Commercial banks are everywhere, credit unions are a little harder to find.....However, a lot of credit unions (or is it all of them?) have this alliance thing where you can make deposits and withdrawals at any other credit union. That definitely adds to the convenience.

To make it more convenient, you might have to get some other credit unions to partner up with you so that maybe you can have a representative inside their offices that you can deal with in person. It wouldnt be practical to have a whole lot of individual office all over the place since its kind of a nitch market and not that localized.

[era86]

Even though I thought of it, the one thing that would stop me would be convenience.....Commercial banks are everywhere, credit unions are a little harder to find.....However, a lot of credit unions (or is it all of them?) have this alliance thing where you can make deposits and withdrawals at any other credit union. That definitely adds to the convenience.

I am with BECU and I can use any ATM/Center that is part of the alliance... wonderfully convenient.:popcorn:

[chessnerd]

I already bank at a credit union.

It's great. Way better than any commercial bank. They generally have better rates and they don't do any of the crap that banks do. There are no hidden fees, low overage charges, etc. Their online banking is completely free and really easy to use. I even get 4% interest on the money in my checking account! On top of that, they reimburse you if you use your card at another ATM, so even if I go out of state I don't have to worry about using another ATM. It doesn't really matter, though, because my college has 5 of their ATMs on campus. They are one of the official sponsors of that college's sports teams, so I regularly get free t-shirts from them.

You just can't beat all that.

You'd need to offer something pretty good to tear me away from my credit union. Also, my dad works there, so they pretty much have total loyalty from me... :)

[Goolie]

Most banks are afraid of me. =(


But I'd love a bank that was as happy as this forum!

[Nick_Jinn]

I already bank at a credit union.

It's great. Way better than any commercial bank. They generally have better rates and they don't do any of the crap that banks do. There are no hidden fees, low overage charges, etc. Their online banking is completely free and really easy to use. I even get 4% interest on the money in my checking account! On top of that, they reimburse you if you use your card at another ATM, so even if I go out of state I don't have to worry about using another ATM. It doesn't really matter, though, because my college has 5 of their ATMs on campus. They are one of the official sponsors of that college's sports teams, so I regularly get free t-shirts from them.

You just can't beat all that.

You'd need to offer something pretty good to tear me away from my credit union. Also, my dad works there, so they pretty much have total loyalty from me... :)


Maybe the answer would be to partner up with an existing credit union, create a division for open source projects and allocate funds for the project.....it would be like a separate program at the same bank with slightly different perks if you are an open source software developer.

[phrostbyte]

I threw this idea around once. I don't know the difficulty of starting a credit union, but I don't think it's a joke. It would be cool if the online banking system was 100% FOSS too.

[Nick_Jinn]

I threw this idea around once.

Im adding you as a friend.


While I dont think this undertaking would be by any means easy, if you watch the Mondragon documentary you can see this activist priest and a few friends of his start up a bank in a little hole in the wall office in Spain...I think its doable, especially with the resources of backers like Cononical and others in the open source community....I wouldnt want it to be completely controlled by one distro though for fear of bias against competition. There would have to be some kind of platform to keep it member run and egalitarian.

It might be more difficult to do from inside the US, especially right now, but if it was an international bank hosted in a country where the laws are more lax, I think it would be doable....and there are perks to having foreign bank accounts.

[wspademan]

What do you think of this open source bank project: CommonGoodBank.com (http://CommonGoodBank.com)?

[handy]

It would cost a LOT of money to set up in one country, let alone multiple countries across the world.

Nice idea, but I doubt it will ever happen.