I know that on HN it often can not be left unsaid that the financial industry has a net benefit on the economy and on society, but I don't think it can be easily assumed that the cost of complying with such regulation makes the banking system less efficient, even if the cost of compliance is many times the fines that end up being paid out.
Banks ultimately compete with each other, and there is inevitably an information asymmetry between banks and their clients. A good faith bank will lose out to banks that "accidentally" employ dark patterns against their customers, if the customers are unaware that they are being cheated, or if the costs of remedies are more expensive than the damages.
People often talk about the value of assuming positive intent on Hacker News. I agree with this in principle, but I also think it is important to create an environment where people acting in good faith are rewarded with not having to waste their time thinking up schemes to compete with dishonest competitors. The bias toward assuming incompetence and honest mistakes over ill intent unfortunately gives cover to people who employ plausible deniability to cover intentional fraud. Cell phone companies, cable companies and utilities make billing errors far too often to plausibly credit honest mistakes alone. At least in their case they don't already have direct access to your assets in the way that banks do.
Banks ultimately compete with each other, and there is inevitably an information asymmetry between banks and their clients. A good faith bank will lose out to banks that "accidentally" employ dark patterns against their customers, if the customers are unaware that they are being cheated, or if the costs of remedies are more expensive than the damages.
People often talk about the value of assuming positive intent on Hacker News. I agree with this in principle, but I also think it is important to create an environment where people acting in good faith are rewarded with not having to waste their time thinking up schemes to compete with dishonest competitors. The bias toward assuming incompetence and honest mistakes over ill intent unfortunately gives cover to people who employ plausible deniability to cover intentional fraud. Cell phone companies, cable companies and utilities make billing errors far too often to plausibly credit honest mistakes alone. At least in their case they don't already have direct access to your assets in the way that banks do.