The magic spell that makes banks give you your money back
08 January 2026

The magic spell that makes banks give you your money back

Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)

About

Patrick McKenzie (@patio11) reads his latest Bits about Money essay explaining why he “loves Regulation E more than any rational person does.” He explains how Reg E created a privately-administered legal system processing over 100 million complaints annually—dwarfing the formal U.S. court system—and why banks are now trying to avoid these obligations for Zelle's nine figure fraud problem.

Full transcript available here: www.complexsystemspodcast.com/the-magic-spell-reg-e/


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Links:

    Bits about Money,  One Regulation E, Two Very Different RegimesFull version of "Doesn't Matter, That's Reg E": https://suno.com/song/173bbd67-92f7-4868-930f-efeca4b373c0

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction
(02:46) These newfangled computers might steal our money
(12:45) The contractual liability waterfall in card payments
(20:35) Sponsors: MongoDB and Framer
(22:23) The contractual liability waterfall in card payments (continued)
(23:47) Enter Zelle
(25:46) Zelle is an enormous fraud target
(32:23) Banks may attempt to extend the Zelle precedent
(35:02) Reg E encompasses almost every technology which exists and many which don't yet