If I can make instant payments from say, a digital wallet (TransferWise, for example) using instant payment rails, why do I need a bank? If I need credit, but can get that credit from a non bank, why do I need a bank?
Stablecoins enable this without central bank and commercial bank infrastructure permissioning (the biggest US banks own Early Warning Systems [Zelle] and The Clearing House [RTP]; the Federal Reserve was instructed by Congress to build FedNow so these largest banks could not block smaller banks from financial infra access). Instant payment rails, value backed by sovereign debt, sovereign debt backed by central banks.
Is your argument that we cannot live without fractional reserve lending enabled by commercial banks? Because private credit and ABS based credit is an example to the contrary. Consumer or commercial deposits are unnecessary to extend credit. Fraud risk is straightforward to manage, using either in house or vendor technologies, within the scope of deposit and banking product fraud detection and mitigation.
Matt Levine: Stablecoins Make Banking Narrower - https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2025-10-02/sta... | https://archive.today/9jJmE - October 2nd, 2025
Private Credit Wants to Be the Bank - https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-12-19/privat... | https://archive.today/MO2kf - December 19th, 2024