• 100% Reserve Banking

Hey Bunqers,

As a regular user of BUNQ I am quite happy that they provide the regular banking services like credit card, payments and transfer of money, but also there is something else that really make me feel different from the other customers. 😊

I know for fact that my money is stored safely in one place. In another banks my money could be lent to ten different customers at the same time, and it is legal, it is called fractional reserve.

It is not that my money is lent, actually is worst, my money is used as a collateral to leverage the lending of ten times my deposit. If I were doing that, lending a money that I don't have it would be fraud, but when a bank does that it is called banking business.

Quite risky, and without my authorization, if I would be sharing the profit maybe I would consider, but as I am not, I prefer have my money safe and pay a monthly fee for the service. It is not only fair, but also ethical, more that any of those so called ethical banks. 😊


So my question for you is that, due to the fact that this is a great feature, no available in any other bank that I know, could you share more details about it. Such as legal documents that provide us more info about something that (sorry but sometimes sounds too good to be true)

Following I am attaching a document from recent studies about the 100% Reserve Banking

    Hi Jesus,

    Thanks for this detailed and insightful post. We really pride ourselves on being ethical in all that we do 🤗

    As we discussed in the support chat, we do not technically implement 100% reserve banking as we are legally required to deposit some money in governmental bonds.

    Clarifying that a little bit, it would now be great to spark some discussion and get others feedback on the above. I'm curious to see what other bunqer's thoughts are as well 🤔

    Let's get talking 🙌

      I'm not sure if your statement is entirely true (it could be though, I'm not an expert...): "...and without my authorization, if I would be sharing the profit maybe I would consider...". I assume you will have given permission during the initial sign-up at your bank and 'your profit' is the tiny amount of interest you receive + the low price you pay for your account.

      But... I definitely agree that it's great bunq doesn't work this way. This is one of the reasons I happily pay a little more for bunq than go to any other bank.

        Hi Jesus, unfortunately I can't open the pdf on my phone for some reason. But if I'm not mistaken (I am far from being a banking expert) you are talking about the difference between fractional-reserve and full-reserve banking (also known as the Chicago Plan)

        As far as I know bunq is the only bank that comes as close to being full-reserve as possible under the current legislation. This principle fits perfectly with bunqs vision of banking. This quite unique selling point of bunq is one of the (many) reasons why I chosen bunq.

        But, I do think bunq could do more to explain this principle to users because this would also explains why the bunq price plan differ from other banks.

          I like bunq. I really do. I like them for what they are: a innovative payment service. Not a bank. You can think and say all you want about traditional banks, but they do serve serveral purposes Bunq isn't.


          It's because of traditional banks local, and less local, businesses can exist and thrive and you can have a mortgage. Bunq is a nice alternative to one of the important functions of a bank, but not to all. So it isn't really fair to compare Bunq to traditional banks. Something with apples and oranges (or pears, for the Dutchies).

            Interesting. But I don't understand how a 100% reserve banking would work in practice. Banks would merely be accountants and play no role in credit (and hence money) creation. Who creates the money then, and on which terms? Do you apply from a loan from the central bank directly?

            I do sympathise with the idea of electronic payment systems that are completely isolated from credit risk. According to what they claim, bunq to tries to achieve exactly that (which ironically makes it the most boring bank that there is, although it's an interesting bunq). But this is basically solving a problem that doesn't exist, thanks to deposit insurance. Nobody wants to keep more than 100.000 euros in their payments account anyway.

              "As a regular user of BUNQ I am quite happy that they provide the regular banking services like credit card, payments and transfer of money..." They DON'T provide credit cards, they provide debit cards

                This is my main reason for switching to bunq. They come close to a full-reserve bank. If I'm correct, in 2017 a full-reserve banking option was denied by De Nederlandse Bank and minister Dijsselbloem because of restrictions in 'EU guidelines'...

                  Write a Reply...