Nick O'Tyme writes:
> In this world of electronic xfers you would think transferring from one bank
> to another would be almost instantaneous but (I'm not sure about elsewhere
> in the world) here in Oz it can take up to 3 days for money to hit the new
> account.
It's still instantaneous. Those three days are time taken from the bank to
invest and profit from the money in the transfer. Banks generally will only
complete the transfer in the time required by law.
I once deposited a check from overseas in my local bank. After two months, it
still wasn't there. After I went to the bank and showed them the statement
and the cancelled check proving that they had had the money in their hands for
at least six weeks, it suddenly appeared on my account.
> What do you think happens in the meantime? Probably invested on the
> short-term market. With millions of dollars being transferred there must be
> some profit involved even if it's only a few thousand dollars.
The profits are a lot greater than a few thousand dollars, and the amounts
transferred are a lot greater than millions. It's very profitable to keep you
away from your money, even for very short times.
Vernon Balbert
Dallas
