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[Shantae]

With how things are so computerized and automated, especially in the financial world, I am still baffled why certain things are held over from a time where people had to do things personally in order for the banks to do their thing. Things like bank deposits, or money sent via paypal, I never understand why these things get take longer because of weekends/holidays, and only process on "business days". No person is actually handling these transactions, and it's just the computer that needs to do the job basically.

For example, let's say it's Friday night, and I pay for something online via paypal. The primary source for my payments on paypal are my checking account...what typically happens is I won't even see that money be withdrawn from my bank until the following Monday. Another example is I'm expecting a deposit on a day that might happen to be a holiday. Well, that deposit won't show up in my account until the day after the holiday, or the next "business day" after the holiday.

Why is this a thing in 2020, when shit is all automated? Why do the computers need to take the holiday off and not just process shit? I don't understand it, and it just baffles me, because a lot of things still operate on this principal "business days" or "working days". Maybe in some circumstances, they need to have someone authorize something, but in the examples where shit gets done so frequently, and is automated, I don't understand why it still does work like. Can someone please help me understand?

 

[ManaByte]

Usually it's for security. Even for things like that there is usually a human monitoring to ensure something fishy isn't going on, because if there wasn't someone keeping an eye on it; it'd be a huge and very vulnerable target.

 

[SurprisedPikachu]

So I work in finance IT for a sports company. I can tell you most things are automated but every company will have 2 (or more) accounting teams. It usually boils down to Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable. These are humans that work to ensure all the $ line up. In addition to this they usually have a 24 hour wait to ensure all goes well. For example.. you pay bill by clicking a button. They automatically take the funds from your account but AR at that company basically has to acknowledge the transfer was received from the financial institution. While a computer can do this, some regulations require human intervention because the finance world is fucking insane about making sure $ is lined up.

 

[Atrus]

I can see this being the case by the late 2030's where automation does everything but until then there's usually a couple of human processes along the line that causes the hold up.

Governments change at a snails pace and the institutions they regulate aren't all that much faster.

 

[Hideous Snake]

So I work in finance IT for a sports company. I can tell you most things are automated but every company will have 2 (or more) accounting teams. It usually boils down to Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable. These are humans that work to ensure all the $ line up. In addition to this they usually have a 24 hour wait to ensure all goes well. For example.. you pay bill by clicking a button. They automatically take the funds from your account but AR at that company basically has to acknowledge the transfer was received from the financial institution. While a computer can do this, some regulations require human intervention because the finance world is fucking insane about making sure $ is lined up.

This is new info! I thought the payment goes through automatically by how fast it goes. Thank you for this

 

[Ulysses 31]

While a computer can do this, some regulations require human intervention because the finance world is fucking insane about making sure $ is lined up.

Of course they are insane, could you imagine the mess it would if the $$$ didn't add up and $ was disappearing or generated out of nowhere?

 

[Pagusas]

I wonder if the over reliance on automation will be our eventual downfall.

 

[Kagey K]

I wonder if the over reliance on automation will be our eventual downfall.

It has already started and it too late to turn back.