- Hey guys, this is where
banks keep your money.
Now we've all gone to the bank,
seen the huge vault and wondered,
"Could I GTA that?"
Vault themselves have
been around for centuries.
Just look at Egyptian pyramids.
But the iconic bank
vaults that we know today
became popular in the
1800s during the Gold Rush,
when the Gold Standard actually dictated
the value of currency.
Prospectors in the West could go to a bank
and directly exchange
gold nuggets for cash.
Then of course the banks
would need to store
that gold in their safes.
But come on, this is the wild, wild West,
a much more nefarious time.
Early bank robbers could roll up
and literally just take the safe.
Like, pick it up, walk out
with it at their leisure,
so vaults had to get bigger, heavier,
and then room-sized by the 1920s.
The problem was that even
as the vaults got better,
thieves still found a way in.
The first locks could be picked,
the stronger locks could be blown up,
and so on and so on.
More locks were added to
thicker and thicker vault doors,
until ultimately the vaults
hit what we see today.
However, bank vaults aren't
just really needed anymore.
If you go to a bank today,
you probably won't find 100-karat diamonds
and stacks of gold bars.
Instead, for the most part,
vaults just contain people's
safety deposit boxes
filled with stuff like legal documents
and whatever Matt puts in yours.
- [Matt] Beanie Babies.
- [Austin] Oh, that's
a bad investment, man.
- [Matt] Uh, time will tell!
- The problem is old
vaults were so well-made
with concrete and reinforced steel
that it is next to
impossible to tear them down.
I mean, a bank vault in
Hiroshima was so strong
that it survived the nuclear blast.
Because of this, when a bank closes,
most vaults just get repurposed
for something much less cool.
I know the town that I grew up in
had an old bank that was
converted into a restaurant,
and so instead of
getting rid of the vault,
they literally just let
you dine inside the vault.
They would even let you close
the door and take a picture,
which was always super-creepy to me.
So if not for a vault,
then where does a bank
actually keep your money?
Well, in case no one has told you,
banks are businesses.
If there was a big pile of
cash sitting in a vault,
it would look cool,
but it wouldn't actually
make the bank any money.
- [Matt] Big stacks of cash!
- [Austin] That was so low, man!
- [Matt] Big stacks of cash, oh!
It hit my headphones.
Big stacks of cash!
- Wow, that's a lot of money.
- [Matt] I was going to say,
"That's all the money we've
got from firing Ken, but..."
- Oh, wow!
Ah, a good solid 10 Gs here, I think?
You're still fired, you know.
Take your salary back.
And no, by the way, the
money that a bank loans out
is actually your money.
When you deposit cash to the bank,
the physical bills
become owned by the bank
and your account gets credited.
Until you withdraw the cash,
the money in your bank
account is intangible,
existing only on paper.
Well, actually not
paper, it's in computers,
'cause if it was paper, it'd be money.
- [Matt] No, it's actually a cloth
to prevent it from tearing so easily.
- [Austin] Now the vaults
aren't completely void of cash.
Luckily, a bank is not allowed to loan out
all of their deposited money
just in case you need to, I
don't know, withdraw something.
The Federal Reserve sets
a minimum requirement
for banks to have cash on hand.
Depending on the size of the bank,
somewhere between three to 10%
of their total daily transactions
has to be readily available.
The amount actually fluctuates
during higher demands
such as during holidays.
Most of that physical cash
is kept in tellers' drawers,
and the rest is kept in
the safe or the vault.
We're talking about thousands of dollars
here usually, not millions.
This--
- Fat stacks of cash!
- No, stop, stop.
Stop, man, it's not funny anymore.
And, look, you're just
bending our money now.
Just, okay, okay. (chuckling)
This makes robbing banks
not super-profitable,
as the average robbery only
makes off with about $7500.
Now that is not a small amount of money,
but definitely not a big score
to retire off of, Trevor.
- Who's Trevor?
- GTA, man.
I literally just made a GTA reference,
like, seven minutes ago.
When the bank has more
cash than they need,
they typically send it
to the Federal Reserve,
which kind of acts like
a bank for the bank.
Armored carriers transport the money
between the bank and the Reserve,
and once they receive the money,
they just check for
authenticity but also integrity.
With the rise of digital banking,
most newer brick-and-mortar
banks don't even have a vault.
Instead, maybe a safe,
or some might not even
keep cash around at all.
- [Matt] Fat stacks of cash!
- No.
Now, if you're just tired of dealing with
your enormous piles of cash like Ken is,
you might be interested in our episode
on how companies like Apple
get around paying taxes.
And of course, if you enjoy it,
make sure to subscribe to This Is,
and ring that notification bell,
or else we'll put Matt in a bank vault,
'cause he's our most valuable team member.
(Matt groaning)
(Austin giggling)
- Yeah.
- Aw, right.
