Neualtenburg Bank

Because the city has reached break even, while continuing to attract new citizens, it is time to prepare for expansion. Although a few months away, I want to make sure the city has its finances and financial infrastructure in order. Initial steps have been the recent passing of a law locking land-use fees to US$ and the drafting of a new bill formalizing different types of city bonds. The next logical step is the creation of the Neualtenburg Bank.

In the beginning I would like the bank to be simple. It would only exist to simplify land-use payments and wouldn't offer loans or pay interest like Ginko. The bank would simply provide accounts for all citizens that the city could deposit or withdraw money from.

For example, if a citizen had an account with a balance, the city would automatically withdraw a citizen's land-use fee from their account. Additionally, we could even make depositing money into the bank the default method of paying land-use fees. If one had insufficient funds, a reminder email would automatically be sent.

The goal here is to make a system that scales as the population grows, reducing the manual labor required to make transactions.

What do you think?

~Ulrika~

I'm all for this idea! It is certainly clear that we need a less manual process of collecting fees.

Sounds great for those who like to pay in $L. Would I still be able to pay via PayPal as well?

Definitely. I omitted it from the post above but I'd like the bank to keep balances for citizens in both currencies.

~Ulrika~

I think it's a great idea.

Sudane

This is a great idea. Who's gonna make it?

I'll design the architecture of the ATM --but I ain't scripting it.

I can have most of the work done, as it will have to be integrated into the website and is fairly similar to the vendor code I've already done. After coding, we'll have to have some smart cookies vet the code to make sure there aren't any exploits.

~Ulrika~

Digi and I volunteer as smart cookies... or volunteer to eat chocolate chip cookies, whatever role serves Neualt best.

Neato. I'll make it look an ATM as envisioned by some blackforest woodcarver.

As always, great idea.

I'm thinking something like this:

Ulrika, I'm definitely interested in helping out with any testing that needs to be done

So the proposed bank structure would just be something to facilitate payments, is that it? Sort of a "PayPal for SL"?

I have not fully understood the idea behind a Nburg ATM.

Isn´t it already possible with PayPal to setup a regular abo?

Where are the benefits (for me) besides having a beautiful looking ATM?

Mel

Exactly.

In the future we could expand services but right now it would exist only as a tool to automate land-use payments and facilitate coupon deposits for bonds.

~Ulrika~

The biggest benefit is to the city and those who are paying in L$. The city would benefit from an automated system that handles monthly land-use fees and bond coupons. Citizens paying in L$ would be able to put more than a month's worth of land-use fees in their account so they didn't have to worry about fluctuating land-use fees or making monthly payments.

For those that pay via PayPal, nothing would change. They can still use the recurring monthly payment feature or send the payment manually when they get a notice.

~Ulrika~

Can you clarify please? The amount of L$ that will be charged to you (or automatically withdrawn from your bank acccount) would still vary from month to month, depending on the exchange rate, right?

Exactly. The city would automatically calculate the amount due and then withdraw it monthly automatically (if the citizen chooses this method of payment). That way one could put a few months rent in their account and not have to worry about remembering to pay land-use fees.

Personally, this is how I'd like to pay, which is where the idea came from. It also helps automate land-use payments for the city.

~Ulrika~

I wonder how many citizens would use this serve ... I would not. In other words: is it worth the effort? Would you mind to setup a poll prior to build the ATM?

Mel

I'm in favour of the idea - not quite sure whether I'd use it for land fees but in time maybe ... also I like the idea of having a central point for donations, buying and selling lindens amongst ourselves, a credit union perhaps. Yes, nice idea.

I would certainly use it. For example, I am going on a month-long trip in December where access to SL may not be feasible. It would be much easier for me (and Sudane, no doubt) to put my money in an ATM where my land use fees can be deducted when the time to pay it comes.

I doubt that Sudane would mind if you paid one month later.

Anyway ... what I would do is, pay the whole amount in advance.

You could also setup a regular payment in PayPal.

Mel

Certainly. Right now we have a dedicated accountant that handles the finances of our relatively small group. So sending out monthly reminders, statements, and summaries (and dealing with late payments) isn't a problem.

The plan for the bank is more forward looking, attempting to address accounting needs when the city has many more citizens than it has now. The goal of this thread is to discuss what form a future banking system would take, how we would interface with it, and what features we'd like to see.

~Ulrika~

I have some MySQLbackground if it helps. Most of my database work has been PHP, which may not help here, but let me know if there's something I can do.