# Why is modern banking still so g-dd-mned archaic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2005, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-modern-banking-still-so-g-dd-mned-archaic/320486 "2005-09-07T07:13:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-modern-banking-still-so-g-dd-mned-archaic/320486/21 "2005-09-11T04:40:16Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I’m paying taxes to Uncle Sam and that Canadian whench, so I just hope my company’s taking care of Mr. Fox. I’m curious why you’d be paying any taxes to Canada, since Canada only taxes residents. Do you qualify as a Canadian resident (IIRC, living 6 months and one day in a given calendar year)? With regard to the perceived relative inefficiancy of “checks,” keep in mind that the US system is rather unique. In Canada, for instance, slippage\* is illegal, so banks have no incentive to delay depositing funds into the accounts of cheque payees. While the Canadian banks are larger than all but the biggest US banks, the banking _industry_ in the US is more than large enough to achieve the economies of scale necessary to implement quicker systems. Unfortunately, that was erase a significant contributor to consumer banking profits. - By slippage, I mean the use of money an institution gets between the time that it withdraws the funds from a payer’s account and the time it deposits it into the payee’s account. The [Canadian] Bank Act stipulates that financial institutions may not profit from delays in processing cheques. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-modern-banking-still-so-g-dd-mned-archaic/320486/22 "2005-09-11T06:53:01Z")
Even when I go on-line and electronically transfer money from my cheque account (with one bank) to my savings account (with another bank) the money disappears into some sort of black hole for 5 days before it is credited to me. Where does it go to? My suspicious mind suspects that it sits in a special account owned by one of the banks and earns interest for them. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-modern-banking-still-so-g-dd-mned-archaic/320486/23 "2005-09-11T12:55:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Essentially what I am saying is: To honor a check a bank has to verify that it is Person’s A check, that they have the funds, that Person B is person B and can accept the funds (not even talking about Person C whom the check can be written out to by Person B). It’s just not that easy. Yeah, but why does this take _days_? Checking how much money there is in an account is relatively simple, surely? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-modern-banking-still-so-g-dd-mned-archaic/320486.md?page=1)