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What's stopping banks from creating FOSS (or atleast open-source) banking solutions (apps)? (fost.hu)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Let's say, I create a bank with the caveat that all of my banking phone apps and webapps are FOSS (or if they depend on non-free components — banks probably do to communicate with each other —, then just OSS). Am I going to be behind the competition by doing this?

If the most secure crypto algorithms are the ones that are public, can we ensure the security of a bank's apps by publicizing it?

Are they not doing this because they secretly collect a lot of data (on top of your payment history because of the centralized nature of card payments) through these apps?

EDIT: Clarifying question: Is there a technical reason they don't publicize their code or is it just purely corporate greed and nothing else?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Not quite sure what you mean. In the US, banks are constantly giving away free money and free stuff to open an account. Some people make a hobby out of opening accounts just to grab the free stuff and close the account as soon as the rules allow. Works great on college kids who can be bought cheaply.. just offer a free t-shirt. Or if you’re in a red state you might get a free shotgun for opening an account (not joking.. see Michael Moore’s film).