Banks are tremendously inefficient and have to support huge fixed costs for branches. Credit cards also offer a 1 month grace period without interest, so the effective yield they get is lower, thus they have to charge higher.

The cost structure of banks is mainly about credit risk (defaults), fixed costs, origination and servicing costs, and funding costs. For startups the funding costs is the biggest problem because banks fund themselves at close to 0% out of deposits. We have to raise expensive debt. As we drive this cost down, we will have much better conditions for users and merchants

I guess we are just throwing technology at problems instead of people/brick and mortar branches