When I become eyewateringly rich, I'm going to start a nonprofit retail bank. We're going to pay WAY under the market rate for salaries, have no shareholders and instead of profit we're going to give rates of interest on savings accounts WAY over the market rate, and give out loans at WAY under the market rate.

We'll attract talent through my own devastating personal charisma, and by offering people the chance to really really piss off the people working at the proper banks.

I'll make sure to do a Show HN post when it's sorted. See you there!

The good jobs aren't in retail banking. Take a look at Tescos banking plans, btw. And good luck giving loans way under market rate. That worked out great last time. (See: Everyone, everywhere, ca. first half last decade).

You're absolutely correct. Think of it like this - if you're paying a lot of money to get the top people, you'll want to use their brains. Simply put, retail banking does not provide comparable returns on investment than putting the people into hedge funds, trading, etc.

You have to bear in mind that banks (from my personal experience and from my peers) are first and foremost profit oriented, which effectively guides their decisions. Hence, you'll not see those people working on things that directly impact retail customers.

I take your point of course. I would like to know though to what extent the zillions of pounds put into the system by retail customers contribute to opportunities for the investment arms of the bank.Isn't this the $64K question and the reason for much agonizing over future bank legislation?

Really? Do you queue in your branch still, or use the website?

Remember if you have an ISA or a pension you are "the stock market"...

I spend a lot of time abroad so my experience is almost entirely of internet transactions. I have no complaints about counter service when I use it. Decline in service? One small example: the website has been revamped so now I have no print option for my credit card (as supplied by the same bank) account. I am forced to copy-paste details from the site which they seem to have arranged to make as tricky as possible. The old ‘print account’ option has gone. I did wonder if statistically this might mean that enough folk would make mistakes in repayment to the bank's advantage in interest payments. But that's just my rotten suspicious mind. I mean - as if a bank would ever stoop so low!

That's because the graduates don't go and work for the retail arms of the big banks. They work in the investment and trading arms and generally have very little to do with customers. Many of the Banks don't even have retail arms.

And that's not even thinking about Hedge Funds, Brokerages and other Financial institutions that are normally grouped into 'the banking industry'

You're confusing retail and investment banking.