Recently, I noticed a new face in the DC banking scene — Barclays Bank. Having only been open for about a month, I reached out to the founder and CEO, adi_sfatm, to find out what the bank actually is and what makes it worth paying attention to.
Getting started
When I asked whether adi_sfatm owned Barclays outright, the answer was straightforward: “I am the CEO although ownership is shares-based.” The bank has been operating for roughly a month, and by adi_sfatm’s own admission, it is still in its early days. There are multiple savings accounts open, but no customer deposits have come in yet. All current funds are either from shareholder equity or loans, with about $10,000 in liabilities. What money does exist sits in a mix of real estate and cash, with around a third kept liquid at any given time.
Interest — rarer than you’d think
At the time of writing, only two banks on Democracy Craft pay interest on savings accounts: Barclays and Fish’s Bank. Most don’t, which makes Barclays worth a closer look. Individual savers earn 2% a month if they make no withdrawals that month, dropping to 1% if they do. Businesses get a flat 1.25% regardless of withdrawal activity to allow for more flexibility and stability. The obvious follow-up was how Barclays can afford to pay interest when most banks on DC can’t. The answer was that Barclays doesn’t intend to work like a typical bank. “We don’t solely rely on loans unlike most banks, and instead will shift towards functioning like a conglomerate,” adi_sfatm told me. The plan is to eventually own multiple subsidiary businesses under the Barclays parent company, including a technology and patents venture and a food business. The savings accounts, in that model, are as much about attracting customers to the wider business as they are about the bank itself.
Protecting customers
A few things came up during the interview that stood out on the consumer protection side. If two Barclays customers are involved in a scam and the transfer was made between Barclays accounts, it can be reversed — provided the money hasn’t been withdrawn yet and there’s enough evidence of the scam. As adi_sfatm put it, this makes “barclays-to-barclays transfers one of the safest forms of money transfer in the game.” When I asked how the bank maintains player confidence given how new it is, the answer was simple: transparency. There’s a public shareholder document updated roughly once a week, and adi_sfatm pointed to this as the foundation of trust with customers.
No loans yet
Barclays isn’t lending at the moment. Adi_sfatm is waiting until the bank holds at least $100,000 in equity before introducing loans, to ensure withdrawals can always be comfortably covered. On a hypothetical bank run, the current reality is that there are no customer deposits to run on — though adi_sfatm was clear that in such a scenario, the bank would simply let withdrawals happen. A year from now I asked adi_sfatm what success would look like for Barclays in a year’s time. The response was specific: “Having sold all Class C and Class B shares and having opened at least 2 subsidiaries with at least 1 patent.” That’s an ambitious target for a bank barely a month old, but it suggests a clear direction rather than vague optimism. On DC’s banking regulations, adi_sfatm was largely positive — “most of the things do make sense,” they said. The one frustration was the waiting time during the establishment and approval process. Once through that, things have apparently been smooth enough. Barclays is still very new, and there’s plenty it hasn’t done yet — no customer deposits, no loans, no subsidiaries. But it’s already offering something most DC banks don’t, and it has a plan that goes well beyond just holding people’s money. Whether that plan comes together is another question entirely, but it’s one worth keeping an eye on.
Written by Takeawaymrcow