I've been reading through this thread and find it very interesting. I really don't know much about banking systems in general but I'm all for an open-source, transparent banking system; one that isn't controlled by a central body that can fail spectacularly and have consequences for everyone around the world. I think what I'm getting at is that we have to stop thinking of this in terms of "my bank does this, my bank does that." This is the current system and one that has proven to be elitest, corruptable and fallible.
As I said, I'm not very knowledgable about the specifics of banking but what do people think about this idea. I was checking out stripe.com and I had the idea: What if everybody was their OWN bank? I have some kind of server that hosts my account, I can accept and make payments and connect with anyone else to do transfers. I can be paid directly from my job etc... I know it sounds a bit like bitcoin but why would it not work with our current currencies? Why do I need to put my money in one of the 'approved' banks? I guess there are standards and such but could we not work toward this kind of system?