When it comes to money, who can you trust?

As it’s the quiet summer, I’ve been watching too much on Netflix, Prime, Disney and Apple. Yes, I subscribe to them all. It’s interesting that the content is either about love, hate, fear, happiness and other emotions. The one thing that links nearly all the ones I watch is money, because money is power.

Whether it is watching stories about ancient Rome in Those about to die or a family friction in Succession or even The Crown, it’s all about wealth and power. These are often the bedrocks of what creates love, hate, fear, happiness and other emotions.

The thing is that, in naming those iconic series, it’s not really about wealth and money. It's all about trust. Trust between siblings, family, friends and those are enemies, creates friction, wars and battles.

Trying not to give too much away, but when watching several of these series, the trend seemed to be around a loss of trust or, more importantly, a plan to create subterfuge by being trusted. The plans, counterplans and pure and utter deviousness of several characters is at the heart of the series, and each player is either trying to gain trust with another plan in mind, or were trusted but went off keel.

I call this the trust bank.

The trust bank is my personal accounting of who I can trust and who I cannot. Every engagement I have with you, your company, your family, your friends, your circle … either deposits or withdraws from my trust bank.

For me, the trust bank is more important than anything. No regulatory oversight, government influence or more can beat the trust bank score. Like a credit score, the trust bank score is similar: can I trust that you are good for the money? But it goes further than  a credit score as it is also a friendship score, a sibling score, a colleague score.

The trust bank works 1:1 but also B2B, B2C, E2E, G2C and more. It is all about where, as a business, government, employer, friend or sibling: can I trust you. This is core of almost all movies and stories, and is core to society and life. If you cannot trust, you cannot exchange.

However, as demonstrated in most streaming services series, it’s all about breaking trust and going behind the bank of friends, family and colleagues to build greater wealth and power.

This has been true for all time, and the biggest issue faced by everyone. It is also why banks want licences as, they claim, a licenced bank can be trusted because it has a guarantee of zero losses up to a certain amount ($250,000 in the USA; €100,000 in Europe; and £85,000 in the UK).

Are banks trusted? Do you trust your bank more than your brother, sister, mother or father? Your boss, your company, your government?

It’s an interesting focal point and discussion.