So, I am in no way a banking expert, but just this afternoon I started thinking about banks. Here is my train of tought (hopefully readable).
Banking nowadays is making money with money. The money they use for this is money which is given to them in trust by normal people, corperations and even the state. The moneymaking proces is quite simple. Money is lended to other people and interest is charged. This money is in part given back to the people who have given the money to the banks in the first place (the costumers). However, the interest rate paid by the bank is lower than the interest rate paid by the borrowers. That is how the banks make money (probably quite simplified, but it is sufficient for the purpose of this post).
Banks are corperations themselves, so what they need to do is turn a profit and keep the shareholders happy by maximizing said profit. This creates a problem, namely the creation of so called "products" that non-lawyers cannot understand, lowering of intrest on bank accounts and hightening intrest on loans. This all in order to maximize profits. The costumer has no choice but leave the money with the banks because there is no alternative. You cannot keep all your money in your home, that would be a really bad idea for obvious reasons. Without a bank account, you cannot recieve payments or make payments, because most money related buisness is done electronically these days. The banks, even tough they try to make money with our money in the worst possible ways, are a nessecary evil.
Since banks are such important entities, I feel like we cannot leave it in the hands of corperations, so how about non-profit banks? These banks need to make enough money to build and maintain their infrastructure, but would be forced to invest most, if not all, of their profits in their infrastructure. This means that they are free to innovate when they are doing well. One of the "products" these banks could offer is being a sorts of broker between parties to let them get to a lending contract. As compensation, the bank would recieve a certain percentage of the intrest paid.
The ideas might not be revolutionary, maybe even really old (like medieval or before), but I feel like this would actually be a fairer system. Some things are way to important to leave in the hands of corperations, but also too important to leave in the hands of the government.
Anyways, thanks for reading and please share your thoughts on this.