Linden Lab cracks down on Second Life Banks
Filed under: Economy, News items, Second Life
In an announcement that has snuck on to the official Linden blog, Linden Lab has announced that anyone running a bank in Second Life will have to produce "proof of an applicable government registration statement or financial institution charter" or have their content removed starting in two weeks time. This follows the collapse of Ginko, which we covered in exhaustive detail, and complaints that several other banks have defaulted on their 'promises' and are still advertising unsustainably high interest rates (which is, of course, part of their attraction too).The wording affects anyone offering interest payments, which means, I believe it will also affect WSE's practises - they offer a low rate of interest on saved money, although a normal stock exchange business would still permissible since dividends aren't interest as I understand the law.
It will be interesting to see if any of the banks survive this transition, and if they don't, what comes along in their place. It will also be interesting to see if there is a run on the banks now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-08-2008 @ 3:17PM
Cyn said...
I hate to quibble, but if it is on the official blog, how can you say it "snuck on?" It's their public noticeboard, is it not?
Reply
1-08-2008 @ 11:17PM
Patchouli Woollahra said...
It was delivered on a time in the PST cycle when people were knocking off from work presumably and not liable to see it till the next day.
Of course, that doesn't work in a world where it's always slave o'clock somewhere.
Another note: LL has kept very hands off from finance ever since its establishment, so this matter has kinda surfaced out of the blue. It was needed, but the timing is definitely seven kinds of awkward.
1-10-2008 @ 8:20AM
Cyn said...
I've been thinking about WSE. Many of the LL blog comments remark that it is Oh So Convenient for WSE, that they went offline for "upgrades" just a couple days before this banking policy was announced, and supposedly this means that no one can get their money from WSE.
Although I'm not a WSE investor, perhaps they should come back online and give out people's money; it would be the ethical thing to do.
(I went to their website and they have an audio file which addresses these changes, but it is not available in text, which is odd.)
Reply
1-10-2008 @ 8:21AM
Cyn said...
I've been thinking about WSE. Many of the LL blog comments remark that it is Oh So Convenient for WSE, that they went offline for "upgrades" just a couple days before this banking policy was announced, and supposedly this means that no one can get their money from WSE.
Although I'm not a WSE investor, perhaps they should come back online and give out people's money; it would be the ethical thing to do.
(I went to their website and they have an audio file which addresses these changes, but it is not available in text, which is odd.)
Reply