3 posts shown.
I mean, sure, obviously they're chasing profit—that’s the whole point of running a business, isn't it?—but it really comes down to the fact that they have these specific institutional mechanisms working in their favor over there, things we just don't have access to here in the States, or perhaps more accurately, the people who actually should be utilizing those tools to help us grow are simply sitting on their hands and letting them go to waste... hmm...
We all know exactly who pulls the strings in our banking sector, and let’s be real—they aren't exactly losing sleep over being fair to the little guy when they could just focus on squeezing out every last cent of profit for themselves. That's pretty much the whole game, isn't it?
And don't even get me started on bank secrecy... I mean, even the folks in Switzerland finally had to cave and walk away from that, and we all know how much they used to treat bank secrecy like some kind of sacred, untouchable relic.
The US government basically just leans on everyone, using the whole "war on terror" excuse as a convenient way to push through whatever surveillance or financial oversight they feel like implementing whenever it suits them...
I know I’m jumping into this conversation a bit late, but I figured I’d throw my two cents in just to help clarify things for anyone following along later.
So, basically, HROK was established by a consortium of 20 major American banks, and the Hub helped coordinate the whole thing and get the project off the ground.
Only the specific banks that are members of HROK—you can find the full list right on their website—actually have access to the data sitting in that database.
I also want to make sure people don't confuse HROK with a "black list," because that isn't quite how it works; rather, HROK allows a bank (provided you give them your consent, of course) to check if you currently have outstanding loans or if you're overdrawing your accounts.
The report generated from HROK is essentially what helps a bank decide whether they should approve your loan application and what kind of interest rates or terms they might offer you.
Now, there is this secondary aspect—this "black list" element—where there's a specific field used to flag if a client is currently under a freeze, meaning they have overdue credit obligations they haven't settled yet. It’s similar to how, once a client finally pays off that overdue debt, they still carry a sort of "red flag" marker for the next three years indicating they were previously delinquent in meeting their financial obligations.
If that little flag shows you are currently frozen, then you aren't going to be getting any loans from the HROK member banks—and as far as I know, those members make up the vast majority of the industry. However, if it just shows that you *were* delinquent in the past but are all caught up now, then it really comes down to the individual bank's discretion as to whether they'll approve you and what the terms will look like.
Hopefully, that clears things up a little bit! :-)