Having a Banking License is like having your very own digital “money printing machine”: they can’t actually print currency (notes and coins) but since most modern money is only 0s and 1s in computers (specifically, amount values associated with client accounts) they can create money like that - basically credit X money to a client account when they loan money and at the same time debit X money from a special account which needs not have that money - and do it again and again untill they hit the certain reserve criteria.
Yes, at the end of the loan period all this gets (or will have during the life of the loan) unwound - the customer pays the principal of the loan, so the bank debits X money from the client account and credits X money to that special account, so everything is properly back to zeros in accounting terms on that special account - all of which would’ve been as if nothing happenned but … the bank gets interest and keeps.
That’s right, banks get paid interest on money that has never existed, and that interest does have to be created as wealth by the broader Economy, which has massive implications in terms of just how big a share of the wealth produced by the whole Economy banks capture because they can create money out of thin air.
It’s not by chance that in the last 2 decades banks have pushed really hard for people to pay everything by card: as long as the money stays digital banks can make money like this to their heart’s content (limited only by the reserve criteria) without having to procure notes and coins.
It’s also not by chance that in the last 2 decades banks have also pushed really hard for people and companies to become ever more indebted, for the obvious reason that the more money banks create out of thin air as loans the more interest they receive from those loans of made up money.
As for reserve criteria, banks need to have a certain fraction of all the money the loaned out as reserve but last I checked those details (at the time MIFid 3 came out) the so-called “sophisticated banks” with advanced financial modeling tools had the possibility to go as low as 2% - which means 98% of the money they loan is created by them out of thin air.
In practice and if I remember it correctly, around 94% if all money in circulation is created this way.
If you like that, you’re going to love the next bit:
Surely, I must be ill informed, right?! Nope. Here’s a paper from none other than the Bank Of England: Money Creation In The Modern Economy.
Having a Banking License is like having your very own digital “money printing machine”: they can’t actually print currency (notes and coins) but since most modern money is only 0s and 1s in computers (specifically, amount values associated with client accounts) they can create money like that - basically credit X money to a client account when they loan money and at the same time debit X money from a special account which needs not have that money - and do it again and again untill they hit the certain reserve criteria.
Yes, at the end of the loan period all this gets (or will have during the life of the loan) unwound - the customer pays the principal of the loan, so the bank debits X money from the client account and credits X money to that special account, so everything is properly back to zeros in accounting terms on that special account - all of which would’ve been as if nothing happenned but … the bank gets interest and keeps.
That’s right, banks get paid interest on money that has never existed, and that interest does have to be created as wealth by the broader Economy, which has massive implications in terms of just how big a share of the wealth produced by the whole Economy banks capture because they can create money out of thin air.
It’s not by chance that in the last 2 decades banks have pushed really hard for people to pay everything by card: as long as the money stays digital banks can make money like this to their heart’s content (limited only by the reserve criteria) without having to procure notes and coins.
It’s also not by chance that in the last 2 decades banks have also pushed really hard for people and companies to become ever more indebted, for the obvious reason that the more money banks create out of thin air as loans the more interest they receive from those loans of made up money.
As for reserve criteria, banks need to have a certain fraction of all the money the loaned out as reserve but last I checked those details (at the time MIFid 3 came out) the so-called “sophisticated banks” with advanced financial modeling tools had the possibility to go as low as 2% - which means 98% of the money they loan is created by them out of thin air.
In practice and if I remember it correctly, around 94% if all money in circulation is created this way.