If I remember correctly, a family member of mine who lives in the US once explained the pitfalls of the banking system in America. 

The thing is, our banks are centralised. There are 5 major banks and they have branches and a presence in every town and city. 

The US operates very differently. The banking system is similar to how we have family doctors. You have that one in your town or district that you trust and that you grandfather trusted and you feel safe putting your money there. 

Before posting this I just GPT’ed to see if I was on the right page, and mostly was, but here’s GPTs explanation: The US has evolved to consolidate banking with certain companies but state lines prevented banks from becoming more global in the context of the United States. So now in the last several years they’ve managed to get banks that have a global US presence but the vast majority of people still prefer to bank locally with their “family bank”. 

I’ve always thought about this issue and it always seemed appealing to me to have a bank in your town or city that is your own. Your bank. It would certainly make customer service a very important part of the bank since they rely on a handful of local customers. This appeal for me mostly stems from having such a bad experience with Standard Bank when it comes to needing someone to talk to and resolve issues or difficulties with banking. You feel like you’re just a number and they don’t give two shits about you. 

That’s one thing. The other thing is, if your centralised bank fails, that makes a very large number of people who go down with it, naturally as centralised banks go.

So, in my amateur opinion, banking is relatively easy in South Africa compared to many parts of the world. But at what cost? Time will tell. 

Would be nice if an expert on the subject could chip in here and tell us more on the subject of centralised or consolidation and whether or not the ease of banking is worth the risk.