Re: [Taler] Business model and banking license

[Christian Grothoff]

On 11/08/2016 09:29 PM, Oliver Endrikat wrote:
> So it looks very much, as if the ‚exchange‘ is operating standard
> banking business. People give national currency to the exchange,
> earning the right to withdraw this later.

Indeed.

> This is classical deposit business (German ‚Einlagegeschäft‘) which
> requires a full banking license for the operator of a Taler exchange.
> Right?

Well, depends on your definition of "full" and the country you are
operating in. For electronic payment systems like Taler, it seems there
is an intermediate level, but I'm not the financial regulator and it
certainly depends on the country.  This is also the key reason why Taler
is not quite yet operational ;-).

> This means also: very qualified and very well-payed personal, at
> least 7 persons on director level and full compliance department and
> anti-money-laundering software in operation.

Note that the plan is to partner with existing banks that do have this
already in place. Details obviously depend on the regulatory context.

> What makes us hope, that this kind of exchange can operate on less
> fees than the normal bank with its SEPA kind payments transfers?

Well, SEPA payments are literally free for most customers, so that we
won't be able to beat. Ideally maybe match, but not beat. But the real
competitor are proprietary Web payment systems (such as Visa/Mastercard)
where fees currently range 2-15% and that lack proper cryptographic
protections (and thus high fraud potential). And of course we'll provide
better usability and privacy than SEPA payments, but not inherently
lower operational costs.

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