50 fun facts about banks.

January 16, 2008 12:05 PM

50 fun facts about banks.
posted by jbickers (37 comments total)

Well, there sure are 50, and they are certainly about banks...
posted by arcticwoman at 12:10 PM on January 16, 2008

"fun"
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:10 PM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

This was so much fun I laughed all the way to the bank.
posted by never used baby shoes at 12:14 PM on January 16, 2008

Where's the fun fact about how the Fed is privately owned BY JEWS

fixed that for ya'
posted by oblio_one at 12:20 PM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

Uh oh...
posted by jquinby at 12:22 PM on January 16, 2008

"As you may have expected, that Wachovia branch is the longest continuously operating branch bank in the US, having been there since 1781."

Actually, no...I never expected that!
posted by ericb at 12:25 PM on January 16, 2008

"fixed"
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:26 PM on January 16, 2008

I should probably note above comment is meant in a surreal absurd sarcastic way, not like to cause controversy....

Also take these two fun facts about the central bank:

If you want to visit, it’s located at Third Street, between Chestnut & Walnut Streets in Philadelphia; but it’s not open to the public.

If you want to visit, it’s located on Chestnut Street between 4th and 5th Streets and it’s open to the public free of charge( National Parks Service info page).

Nothing more fun then blatant contradiction, eh!
posted by oblio_one at 12:28 PM on January 16, 2008

Yeah, I was expecting more "JEWS DID MY MORTGAGE" and "THE ROOT WORD OF MORTGAGE IS MORT -- WHICH MEANS DEATH IN FRANCE-SPEAK!!!!!1111", and such.
posted by Avenger at 12:30 PM on January 16, 2008

Interesting that Barings was brought down by losses of less than a billion pounds. I'll bet you the outgoing heads of Chase, Citi and Bear Sterns would look at this and think "Amateurs!".
posted by clevershark at 12:30 PM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

50 fun facts about American banks.

Dumb.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 12:31 PM on January 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

If I had a nickel for every time I had a nickel... my money would grow exponentially!
posted by blue_beetle at 12:32 PM on January 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

i have learned that the level of fun present in banks is as low as i expected it to be
posted by cubby at 12:38 PM on January 16, 2008

i have learned that the level of fun present in banks is as low as i expected it to be

And it can be lower yet, if you act now!

Pending credit check and approval. Not valid in some states. Fees may apply. Fun level guaranteed through 9/08, after which normal rates will apply.
posted by cortex at 12:43 PM on January 16, 2008

51 - Banks weren't invented in the USA
posted by Sk4n at 12:51 PM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

52 - But Carlton Banks was.
posted by smackfu at 1:12 PM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

52 - Banks are so called because in ye olden times thieves would store their loot on the banks of rivers. Local citizens caught on to this and would go to "the bank" to get money.
posted by drezdn at 1:16 PM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

oblio_one: The first statement refers to the First Bank, the second to the Second.
posted by alexei at 1:24 PM on January 16, 2008

Nono, "bank" comes from the old English word "bang," meaning to screw. As true now as it was in the old days!
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:26 PM on January 16, 2008

"Also take these two fun facts about the central bank:

If you want to visit, it’s located at Third Street, between Chestnut & Walnut Streets in Philadelphia; but it’s not open to the public.

If you want to visit, it’s located on Chestnut Street between 4th and 5th Streets and it’s open to the public free of charge( National Parks Service info page).

Nothing more fun then blatant contradiction, eh!"

It's two separate buildings, one for the First Bank and one for the Second Bank
posted by wangarific at 1:26 PM on January 16, 2008

52 - But Carlton Banks was.

"It's not unusual to be loved by anyone...."

Tom.Jones.Earworm.
Must.Die.

"What's new pussycat?"

Argh!

Also, "fun" has never been more casually used, yeah?
posted by heathergirl at 1:27 PM on January 16, 2008

If you lived in a bank, cash really would rule everything around you.
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 1:27 PM on January 16, 2008

Banks have never seemed particularly jolly, but the article is interesting.
posted by Cranberry at 1:28 PM on January 16, 2008

Moments before the US started bombing Baghdad, nearly $1 billion dollars was stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq and considered the largest heist in history. $650 million was later recovered in the walls of one of Saddam’s palaces but the balance is still missing.
posted by cashman at 1:33 PM on January 16, 2008

Interestingly, if you remove the bullets, it doesn't really add or detract from the article, except that it ceases to be 50 fun facts.
posted by Dave Faris at 1:43 PM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

Nothing more fun then blatant contradiction, eh!

Read again: those were two different banks.
posted by grubi at 1:55 PM on January 16, 2008

My god. I'm a finance lawyer and even I slipped into a coma reading that.
posted by patricio at 1:56 PM on January 16, 2008

Where's the list of 26,504 infuriating facts about banks?
posted by evilcolonel at 2:02 PM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

My god. I'm a finance lawyer and even I slipped into a coma reading that.

I know where there's a quick test you can take...
posted by mmrtnt at 2:04 PM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

My mother is a banking executive, and she is always trying to get my brother and I interested in the "fun" and "exciting" world of banking. One holiday, she got all excited and said, "Here's an exciting story about banking: Well, banks are regulated by the Federal Reserve, and--" At this point my brother and I cut her off simultaneously, claiming that no story that begins with a federal regulatory agency could really be considered exciting. She conceded the point.

Also, the thing about Bank of America is a little misleading, as the "Bank of Italy" was not an Italian bank, but a bank for Italian immigrants in San Francisco. Also, since the FleetBoston merger/purchase, it could be argued that Bank of America began with Massachusetts Bank, chartered in 1794.
posted by Rock Steady at 3:45 PM on January 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

My mother works for a tiny branch of the treasury department responsible for inspecting the country's savings and loans (which are chartered differently from banks and therefore have a different agency to oversee them. Fun fact!!). She eats, sleeps, and breathes banks, most of them small-town thrifts (which, due to the percentage of their assets they are allowed to invest and how, tend to be smaller than banks. Fun fact!!)

You have no idea, if you live in a small town, how janked your bank is. Tales abound of screen doors on vaults, piles of bonds left lying haphazardly around, managers making false loans to finance sex addictions.

You also have no idea how much these little institutions will do for you. Poor banks in poor towns will go to enormous lengths to help you not lose your trailer home. Sometimes this is just because they don't want to deal with the hassle of forclosure. Selling that shotgun shack is not worth the paperwork it generates; plus foreclosed properties often come with unwanted bonuses, like abandoned meth labs or exotic wildcats chained up in the garage (yes, that did happen). But sometimes the banks do nice things because they actally care about people. One bank president visited a customer at home, several times, to personally beg him not to transfer his savings to the "former president of Nigeria." (He did it anyway.)
posted by bookish at 3:51 PM on January 16, 2008

He did it anyway.

So he's the one!


I don't deal with banks any more since BOA bought the last one I had my money in (and the one before that). Credit unions are far better.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:13 PM on January 16, 2008

Here's a not-so-fun fact about banks:

Citigroup, the nation’s largest bank, reported a staggering fourth-quarter loss of $9.83 billion on Tuesday and issued a sobering forecast that the housing market and the broader economy still had not bottomed out.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 5:11 PM on January 16, 2008

"proposed that the bank sell $10M in stock to help establish its initial funding."

Really? Only $10,000? Or did you mean $10MM?
posted by Eideteker at 8:59 PM on January 16, 2008

M means 1,000? What is this, Rome?
posted by smackfu at 9:45 PM on January 16, 2008

Little known fun fact: "M" is a long-forgotten US currency worth one million anything. They came with a long blank underscore for the bearer to fill in. If you precede the number with a "$", it's dollars. This is also where the "M₁" for "money supply" comes from. "MM", of course, was a short-lived currency based on units of Marilyn Monroes. Fun!
posted by dhartung at 10:32 PM on January 16, 2008

Are you sure those weren't Mickey Mice?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:56 AM on January 17, 2008