Macro Musings with David Beckworth · Monday, October 26, 2026
Patrick Harker discusses how the Bank of Bird-in-Hand successfully navigated regulatory hurdles to serve the Amish community by using meticulous family tree records in place of credit scores and mobile branch GELT buses.
“They don't have credit scores. They don't have, you know, know your customer. They don't have IDs often. So they had to get a waiver so they could use the genealogical records that they keep, very meticulous records to say, know your customer and have people attest that is Earl.”
“Another example is they have what are called GELT buses, G-E-L-D, which is Pennsylvania Dutch for money. These are mobile branches. And again, they had to work with the FDIC because they move these locations.”