By Andrew Klein 

We are told that banks are the pillars of our economy, the engines of commerce that keep our society functioning. But when we examine the mechanics of modern banking, a very different picture emerges: that of a legally protected racket designed to systematically transfer wealth from the many to the few, while adding no real value to the communities it claims to serve.

This is not a conspiracy theory. It is the logical outcome of a system built on extraction, not creation.

The “Float”: Your Money, Their Interest-Free Loan

In an age of instantaneous digital communication, the “2 business day” wait to access transferred funds is not a technical necessity. It is a deliberate financial engineering strategy known as the “float.”

Here’s how the swindle works:

1. The Information is Sent: The data instructing the transfer of your money is sent instantly.

2. The Settlement is Delayed: The actual balancing of the books between banks is intentionally delayed for 24-48 hours.

During this period, your money is in limbo. It has left your account but not reached its destination. So, who controls it? The banks do.

· Who Benefits? The banks use these vast, aggregated pools of “float” money for short-term investments, overnight lending, and currency trades. They earn risk-free interest and generate billions in profit from your capital. This is a hidden business model built into the very process of moving your money.

· Who Carries the Risk? You do. You lose access to your funds, potentially missing bill payments or facing emergencies. You receive no compensation for the bank’s use of your money. This is the essence of privatized profit and socialized risk.

The Fiat Shell Game: Undermining Real Economic Foundations

This extraction is supercharged by the fiat currency system. Money is created not for productive enterprise, but for speculation. Banks create money as debt through lending, incentivizing them to issue as many loans as possible, often inflating asset bubbles in housing and stocks. This does not build real wealth—it simply moves existing wealth into the hands of the financial class that controls the flow of credit, devaluing the savings and wages of ordinary people through inflation.

The Australian Case Study: A Royal Commission of Broken Promises

The 2019 Australian Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, led by Commissioner Kenneth Hayne, exposed the rot at the core of the system. It uncovered a litany of crimes:

· Charging fees to dead people.

· Widespread money laundering breaches (e.g., the Commonwealth Bank faced AUSTRAC’s largest-ever lawsuit for over 53,000 breaches).

· Forging documents and selling unsuitable insurance to vulnerable customers.

The response from the political establishment has been a masterclass in protecting the powerful.

· John Howard’s “Socialism” Smear: In 1999, when confronted with calls for a banking inquiry, then-Prime Minister John Howard dismissed it as “a stunt straight out of the socialist textbook,” framing scrutiny of corporate power as an attack on freedom itself.

· The Morrison Government’s Backslide: Under Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, the implementation of the Royal Commission’s recommendations has been slow, weak, and in key areas, deliberately watered down. The fervor for reform vanished once the headlines faded, proving that the government serves the banks, not the people.

The Culture of Criminal Impunity

The most telling detail is the absence of consequences. For all the crimes uncovered—from enabling sex trafficking and terrorism financing through lax controls to blatant theft from customers—not a single senior banker went to jail. The penalties, when issued, were treated as a cost of doing business, paid by shareholders, not the executives who authorized the misconduct.

Conclusion: An Extraction Engine, Not a Service

The modern banking system is a perfect, self-licking ice cream cone. It:

· Creates the rules that allow it to profit from your money in transit.

· Uses its control over credit to fuel speculative bubbles that enrich insiders.

· Lobbies governments to ensure it remains under-regulated.

· Treats fines for criminal behaviour as a minor business expense.

It adds no value to individuals or communities. It is a financial strip-mining operation that undermines the very economic foundations it purports to uphold.

The solution is not better regulation within this broken system. The solution is to imagine and build a new one—a system of finance that is transparent, instantaneous, ethical, and designed to serve humanity, not prey upon it.

Until then, every time you wait two days for your money to clear, remember: you are not experiencing a delay. You are witnessing a theft in slow motion.

—

Sources:

· Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (2019) – Final Report

· Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) vs. Commonwealth Bank of Australia

· “Howard brands bank probe ‘socialism'”, The Age, 1999.

· “Hayne’s hard line softens as Frydenberg delivers rolling response”, Australian Financial Review, 2020.