FTX is a brokerage not a bank. Furthermore, banks have strict regulations on the kinds of loans they are allowed to give. Also, bank accounts are secured by FDIC.
Also, banks have capital leverage ratios they need to abide by. FTX had no concept of leverage ratios or haircutting assets by liquidity.
I mean yes, but it's just a band-aid for a shitty system in which they allow banks to lend money they don't have, so they needed some ratio to control the mess they created.
In in ideal system nobody lends money that isn't their own. Period.
Other brokerages lend out their spare cash without your consent, too.
It's not really any different other than that law has (rather arbitrarily) decided to protect one and not the other.
- https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/pricing/stock-yield-en...
- https://www.fidelity.com/trading/fully-paid-lending
Some brokerages lend out spare cash (and pay a transparent interest rate, and are subject to strict reserve requirements) but the majority of assets controlled by a typical brokerage are securities. FTX assets were all subject to their leverage strategies, with no specific reserve.