Whoah.  Just…  Wow.

I’m way too busy with RL billable work to properly address this breaking news, but anyone can see that it is huge : Linden Lab® has just issued an official proclamation that is certain to cause a major uproar.  Read the New Policy Regarding In-World "Banks" on the official Second Life® Blog.

Basically, unless you can present real-world banking credentials, you may no longer run a Second Life® "bank" :

…these “banks” have brought unique and substantial risks to Second Life® and we feel it’s our duty to step in. Offering unsustainably high interest rates, they are in most cases doomed to collapse – leaving upset “depositors” with nothing to show for their investments. As these activities grow, they become more likely to lead to destabilization of the virtual economy. At least as important, the legal and regulatory framework of these non-chartered, unregistered banks is unclear, i.e., what their duties are when they offer “interest” or “investments.”

There is no workable alternative.

I feel this is a VERY good thing indeed, and as one of the commenters said, it helps make up in some small measure for the recent grid instability by removing some small part of the economic instability.

As could be easily predicted by anyone who’s ever spent more than an hour on the official Second Life® Forums, there are many who can’t seem to resist demanding an "official clarification" on whether this applies to SL Exchange and similar services.  This is specifically addressed by statements like this one (emphasis added):

Thus, as we did in the past with gambling, as of January 22, 2008 we will begin removing any virtual ATMs or other objects that facilitate the operation or facilitation of in-world “banking,” i.e., the offering of interest or a rate of return on L$ invested or deposited.

If you are a licensed and qualified company wishing to run an in-world bank, Linden Lab® does seem to still wish to enable this:

We will not apply this policy to companies who submit a registration statement, charter, or other applicable license from a governing regulatory authority, or who are merely conducting marketing or education, but not accepting payments.

I imagine I’ll have much more to say on this later, as the inevitable bank runs and panics leading up to the Jan 22 deadline will give us all more fodder to talk about, and the implications of the new policy will become clearer.

[EDIT] Virtually Blind has some excellent commentary (as usual) on the issue at "Commentary: Linden Labs Bans Unlicensed ‘Banks’"

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