[Plan in Motion] Banking and FedNow

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Null

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kiwifarms.net
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Nov 14, 2012
I have not been able to receive a payment through ordinary means since about 2016. I want to use FedNow, a brand new service of the Federal Reserve to compete with the EU's IBAN transfer system.

Considerations
- FedNow is a government service I can put to the test in court if I am removed from, but banks are still private entities. I would need a deplatforming resistant bank or credit union that also supports FedNow. I would prefer suggestions other than "my bank is based i think???". Like, I would really like people to actually contact their banks and ask about our situation and see if it's genuinely deplatforming resistant.

- The Bank of North Dakota and the Territorial Bank of American Samoa are the only publicly-owned banks in the United States.
Theoretically, neither can debank a law abiding citizen.
Neither have FedNow. PND requires an ND resident to be put on the bank, so it would need to be someone I absolutely trust for that purpose.
 
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Was doing research into TBAS since I had never heard of it and found this:

For that reason, among others, government leaders have consistently stated their intention is to eventually privatise TBAS.


Guessing you already knew that, but seems like TBAS is not a long term solution which is unfortunate.
 
There is a bank on the list of FedNow participating institutions that I have some familiarity with. I'm not one of their customers, but I live in the area and can make some inquiries. @Null Is there a specific list of questions you'd like asked and/or issues you'd like me to bring up? Feel free to PM me so that certain Dongless individuals can't get any more insight than they already have as to your plans for this.
 
U.S Bank is know for doing shifty shit maybe avoid them
Shifty like what?

Either way, they tend to be very lower-case-c conservative, so if traditional banks are unwilling to accept Lolcow LLC or Josh as clients, then they likely won't, either.

@Null are the issues with receiving funding due to payment processors or banks themselves? Or both?

I have some banking connections and am happy to make some calls. Probably too big/conservative banks, but if there's a case to be made, I could possibly push it a bit beyond standard responses. Please feel free to DM if potentially of use.

Also, have you considered reaching out to Nigel Farage/his org? He seems to have picked up the debanking torch of late and has a website accountnow.org (site itself doesn't do much except ask info from potentially interested people, but research might reveal some potential contacts). Yes, it's UK and so not directly relevant, but his debanking due to his political views caused the CEO of NatWest, and the CEO of its private banking subsidiary, to resign in the last couple weeks, and Farage to be promised he could keep his personal and biz accts open (so far I believe he is continuing to pursue litigation). In any case, there might be allies there.
 
@Null are the issues with receiving funding due to payment processors or banks themselves? Or both?
When I get a FedNow account, I believe I need to advertise an account # that will reveal my financial institution (like in EU you have the Bank Ident number and then also the account number). So that bank needs to be deplatforming resistant.

Edit: After thorough investigation, I have no idea how FedNow works. I assume it requires the Routing# and Account# to send money - but I cannot verify this. Can anyone actually check their bank if it's participating and find out?
 
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Jersh,
I'm reading about how it works with being an authorized signatory and it seems that the business can write it's own agreement on what exactly the authorized signer can do with the account.
Unless I'm mistaken it seems that you could prevent them from being able to make withdrawals or transfers. That might open up your pool of potential candidates?
 
Every single fucking country even 3rd world ones have a simple and easy version of this that JUST WORKS.
Edit: After thorough investigation, I have no idea how FedNow works. I assume it requires the Routing# and Account# to send money - but I cannot verify this. Can anyone actually check their bank if it's participating and find out?
if after a "through investigation" about it someone ends up more confused about the system than before, it leads me to believe that the USA doesn't really want people using FedNow and it might even be barely usable anyways.
 
if after a "through investigation" about it someone ends up more confused about the system than before, it leads me to believe that the USA doesn't really want people using FedNow and it might even be barely usable anyways.
I mean, I know how it works at a technical level, I just don't know the interface. It may be some weird thing where the banks decide their own interface?

There's a correspondence I can find between the Navy Federal Credit Union and the Federal Reserve where the NFCU says it will not participate in FedNow until there is a "directory", which is their word for usernames like Cashapp. They say that "transposing account numbers" is an increase risk of fraud (despite the Router#/Account# being the BIC/IBAN in EU and works just fine).

I'd bet one real US dollar (silver) it's Router#/Account#.
 
I mean, I know how it works at a technical level, I just don't know the interface. It may be some weird thing where the banks decide their own interface?

There's a correspondence I can find between the Navy Federal Credit Union and the Federal Reserve where the NFCU says it will not participate in FedNow until there is a "directory", which is their word for usernames like Cashapp. They say that "transposing account numbers" is an increase risk of fraud (despite the Router#/Account# being the BIC/IBAN in EU and works just fine).

I'd bet one real US dollar (silver) it's Router#/Account#.
The backend does use routing numbers (RTNs) as you've guessed. It's merely a way for banks to have a cheap & quick solution to transfer money around through a standardized API. There's nothing stopping them from from creating a service that associates an e-mail to a account number / RTN in the background and transacts the money. I believe this is what pidgin is doing.

God knows what the fuck this will look like when Bank of America and others support it. Probably just account/RTN like ACH but faster. So yes, they'll almost certainly know which bank you're receiving the funds at.

See this guide for more info.
During the FedNow Service onboarding process, FIs can designate the specific RTN(s) enabled to send messages and the RTN(s) enabled to receive messages, including the master account RTN, primary RTN (for those who do not maintain a master account) or secondary RTNs (either subaccount RTN or other secondary RTN). Each FedNow-enabled RTN is mapped to a single settlement point — the master account of either the participating FI or that of a correspondent — based on instructions from the participating FI (and agreement by its correspondent, if any) and using the Federal Reserve Banks’ accounting applications. FedNow Service participants do not need to fund a separate account to settle FedNow activity
and
Identifying the Recipient
Inside the payment messages (ISO® 20022 messages: pacs.008, pacs.004, pacs.009), the recipient is expected
to be identified by name, account number and FI via the routing transit number (RTN) of the Receiver FI.
 
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Maybe I don’t understand, but US Bank seems to use FedNow. They have locations all across the country, including near me. I think calling one of the numbers listed for questions may help. I think with a National Bank like this it’d be best for you to call home office. There are also emails to ask questions. I’ll call for you if you can’t, but being financially illiterate I’m not the best choice.

Also, I don’t know if you’ve tried Safe Harbor banking. Weed is legal in CA and other states, but not federally so banks haven’t been taking their money. I asked what they do and I was told Safe Harbor. I understand you are looking for the protection of the feds so you can’t be denied but it might be something to check out.

They seem to do weed clients only but you have a balcony. Time to tip the peppers out, and start farming something other than Kiwis. Maybe a call to ask if they’d expand their services to legal websites that crazy people don’t like is an option, or you can get advice.. So it’s worth a look.

Wish I could help more.
 
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Not a solution but maybe a loop hole you could use:

If you would live in an EU state you could open a so called "Jedermann" account within every bank in Germany as they are legally required to grant everyone who is living in an EU country a basic bank account. It's based on an EU law itself.

The Jedermann account allows you to transer money on/from the account by ordinary bank transfer or any other transfer method that is equal to it, like using a PayPal account.

More information here (German text).

We have different types of banks in Germany, one of them are the so called Sparkassen (english wiki). They do kick people though but it's harder for them bc of the Jedermann-law and since that EU law got introduced I haven't heard/read about people getting kicked.

So maybe the trick works with
1. registrating a place to live in an EU country. Maybe Romania where they don't give a shit.
2. using the Jedermann-law to open a bank account.

Thinking about it with all circumstances (you being American living in an European state that is not part of the EU) it's probably way to complicated but maybe it's an option nevertheless.
 
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