system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do banks no longer offer the interest rates on savings accounts as they did in the 80s and 90s? How do banks make money?

Why do banks no longer offer the interest rates on savings accounts as they did in the 80s and 90s? How do banks make money?
gpt
As others have pointed out banks make their money by loaning (and charging interest) to other people. They get the money to loan by  borrow money from the feds(central bank), business and people who put money into accounts with them. When you put money into your savings account they take that money and loan it to others. They pay you a small amount of interest and then charge a higher amount to those they are loaning too. So in theory it’s a nice system for both the bank and you, but of course the bank is the one that really makes out. 

As to why the interest you get back from personal savings accounts has dropped to around 1% or lower when it used to be around 5% or higher. The big reason for that is the that the prime interest rate set by the federal reserve (the US central bank) is extremely low right now. This is essentially the rate at which the federal reserve loans money to banks. It is used as a measure for other interest rates. So when it’s low then in theory all interest rates drop proportionally. They dropped it to very low back after the financial collapse in ‘08 in order to encourage people to borrow money and get the economy back on track. They just haven’t brought it back up. The up side of this is that pollen can get loans for things like homes for a much lower rate. The down sides is savings accounts and even things like CDs are basically useless. They will probably be forced to up the prime here soon as a means of fighting inflation but this also means that the days of 3% or lower home loans will be over. 

It’s obviously more complicated then that but that’s the jest. This all applies to the US but pretty much every western nation is doing something similar with their central banks.