Ginko: Run on the Bank

"maybe you withdrew over 50k (which requires a manual acceptance)?"
*poke*

I'll tap two plains and...

I'm not so sure that this user was reacting at all. A quick look at his profile reveals that he is the founding officer of the group "First Bank of SL". The charter of this group reads, "Providing banking services for all residents of Second Life".

I tried to ask him in-world about his bank and this thread before posting here, but he does not respond to my IM. It makes me wonder what the true intention behind this thread was. I'm definately taking it with a healthy dose of skepticism.



-Shaun

Could he be upset they are still open? Does his bank still exist? (If so then why was he investing with a different bank? Does that show distrust in his own?)

It's a fairly common tactic to attempt to discredit one's critics, rather than addressing their concerns. I'll be honest: I was a customer of the First Bank, when I needed a loan to obtain some land. The mortgage was given with very generous terms and when I wanted to escape the loan early, Hank was very flexible. Of course, that's because he was running a bank and not a Ponzi scheme.

Now, I believe his bank is closed. The currency services have certainly come to an end, and he hasn't advertised any other services recently.

Thanks Ardith. As a once Magic player, that made my day.

Hank, your withdrawal was simply assigned for manual processing and was just manualy processed. I wasn't online so I'm not 100% sure, but I'm thinking the reserve was particularly low at the time and your request would drive it bellow our emergency level. There is no emergency. We did have a min-run, due to the lowering of the rates, but it's no big deal.

I have no idea about any of this, like I said he didn't answer my IM when I tried to ask him about this thread in-world.



-Shaun

Just stay tuned for later. This beauty is buried in my deck somewhere:

I'm not affiliated with Ginko bank in any way. I am also not attempting to discredit anyone, or accuse anyone of anything. I just find it very odd that this resident would post such an inflammatory thread in a public forum rather than simply ask the bankers what the status of his withdrawl was.

This, coupled with his own profile's indication that he may run a competing bank, and his not answering my in-world IM for whatever reason, makes me wonder about the intentions behind his post. I'm not saying that there ARE any foul intentions here, simply wondering. I hope this clears up my position on this thread for you.



-Shaun

Hello Everyone,
let me start by saying that while I'm not a official representative of Ginko Financial I am An executive of Ginko Tec, the company that provides the coding and back end management for Ginko Financial and thus am in contact with the banks management from time to time. So I have some more knowledge then the average account holder, however I am not directly involved with the bank's operations. That being said here's my input.

The Problem and Solution:
It appears that this all originated out of a missunderstanding Hank had with the Bank's Auto withdrawal System. As Nicholas said, he probably withdrew an amount that exceeded the amount available at that time for auto withdrawals. The Transaction was manually processed and he should have his money by now. In the future I'd hope He'd be a bit more patient before bashing a companies good name because they don't respond fast enough.


As for the clams made:

The Banks Health:
Ginko Financial is sound as far as I know. All withdrawals are still being processed and the bank is still strong. Most withdrawals up to a certain amount are now automatically processed, however if it's a very large sum it will still need manual approval for security reasons.

Run On Bank?
Needlessly demanding all your money back out of fear will indeed cause a “run on the bank” condition, because naturally like any bank not all of Ginko Financial's assets are immediately available in L$. while all account balances will be fully honored and paid out it will take a considerable time to do this. Also this will cause funds for those that actually need them to be unavailable. Basically everyone instantly demanding all their money back will create the very thing they fear.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope I clarified some Missunderstandings.

I love this. A bank describing the act of running out of money and being unable to give customers their funds as "no big deal". How about you describe it as an egregious oversight that will not happen again and that your customer's confidence is the only true asset you posses?

Or am I going to have to play the boycott card again?

~Ulrika~

Can you possibly explain how the owner of the Ginko bank possibly thinks it's reasonable that he doesn't provide his real life information to people storing money with him?

When I asked for Anshe to provide a RL business name and address, people were outraged. So don't expect prompt answers on this.

We did not "run out of money". What I meant by bank run was an unusual amount of withdrawals in relation to deposits. The delay was a security procedure and one which we constantly warn people about. It's unfortunate that it must happen, but it does, so I can not say it will not happen again, or that it was an oversight, much less an "egregious" one.

Linden Lab has my real life information and I'm sure they would release it if it became clear I was commiting fraud.

This thread absolutely disgusts me.

Hank either genuinely misunderstood the process, or is deliberately attempting to defame Ginko (ala Prok vs. Snapzilla). My gut tells me its more likely the former, rather than the latter, judging from Hank's prior history.

WTH is wrong with you people? You're taking on a mob mentality, with pitchforks and all. I've never dealt with Ginko, and know little about them. But from reading the posts here, the bias seems squarely 'Forum In-Crowd' based.

If you disagree philosophically with the idea of having a Savings & Loan inside SL - all the more reason to be neutral on this subject until ALL the facts emerge.

Jesus. And I wonder why I lurk.

Isn't this an investment bank? If so, it's reasonable to expect that the majority of your L$ does not actually exist in the form of L$ right now but is out in the form of "investments", which grow your L$ to provide your return. So really, it probably isn't a big deal as long as they're honoring their own terms. The total assets of the bank are the "big deal", although I'm not sure if they share that information.



-Shaun

Well this is one of those Complex questions that Is quite hard to give a satisfactory answer to.

Our Online representations though played by us have their own personalities and reputations that we don't necessarily want to associate with our RL selves, due to various reasons.
Truthfully would you be willing to provide your RL identity for security and verification purposes? If not why do you expect the Owner to do the same? The fact is in this online world we only have our online Reputations to stand by. If that's insufficient then you are free to chose not to have an account with the bank it's that simple.

This is not a philosophical point.

There is a long and realistic history regarding banks and lack of oversight.

The fact is when banks are not regulated properly the economy as a whole becomes destabalized when a particular trust falls apart. This is why all governments guarantee a certain amount of funds that you put in your savings account and why if you're a mutual fund or any other kind of fun that requires storage of capital you need to jump through a lot of legal hoops to do so.

I suspect that you might be completely right, which means my previous opinion is reactive and out of place.

It looks like I'm going to have to boycott myself.

~Ulrika~

If they screw you, your lawyer can subpoena their RL information and relevant records from Linden Lab. At that point, Linden Lab would be bound by law to release the information. So even though you don't have their RL info now, you could have it if you had a legal reason (such as a lawsuit) to obtain it.

Re: Government insurance of banks, generally they get FDIC insured for up to $100,000 per account.

I have seen threads locked or edited for far less. This type of a thread, if the allegations are unfounded, could be devistating to a starting business. I feel that the creator of this thread should have used more tact and waited before running in here and accusing people. I'm sure this is either a misunderstanding or a hoax. Either way all it does is spread FUD.

And I don't think anyone SHOULD have their real-life information right now. jmo

coco

You didn't see anything coming becuase nothing happened. Everyone still has access to their money. I am amazed at how many people are so quick to point the finger.