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Only 20% in a year? On Brazil the "Banco do Brasil" (Bank of Brazil) the interest rate on a year is more than 350% (link), and all other banks are engaged in similar rates (or worse). Yeah, I live in a shithole...

GP must go to the right theaters, that don't play blockbusters... In the city I live: http://www.sescsp.org.br/sesc/programa_new/indexbusca.cfm?Unidade_ID=2&data=0&Atividade_ID=0&olodum=1&first=1&Contador=1&page=1&Palavra=>http://www.sescsp.org.br/sesc/programa_new/indexbusca.cfm?Unidade_ID=2&data=0&Atividade_ID=0&olodum=1&first=1&Contador=1&page=1&Palavra= http://www.bb.com.br/portalbb/page501,128,10163,0,0,1,1.bb?&codigoMenu=9904&codigoMenu=9899 http://cinemateca.gov.br/ http://www.usp.br/cinusp/

These errors wouldn't be tolerated with ATM machines because the public seems to care a lot more if their bank account is fraked with but not so much their vote for some reason...

[Citation Needed]

Are you thinking of the same ATMs that I am? Many ATMs are Windows running on commodity hardware. I've seen a few whose entire functionality is a java applet sitting on the desktop.

I can't dispute your assertion that "the public seems to care," but I will dispute your claim that "these errors wouldn't be tolerated". I dispute the claim because we don't know. ATM mfgs & banks don't report to anyone.

There are no statistics to prove or disprove the security of ATMs.

I don't know how it works in other countries, but if you consider the Banco do Brasil, the biggest bank in Latin America:
The ATMs currently run a custom (in-house-compiled) version of OS/2.
The bank is switching to a custom version of Linux (the userland code, naturally, is developed by themselves aswell).

About the banking system, in Brazil all the financial transactions from all banks are reported to the Banco Central do Brasil (Central Bank of Brazil) and the data is cross-checked.

Truth is Windows will be around for a long long time, even if not on the home business, there is just too many corporations relying on windows for it to sink. I do believe the user base at home will decline heavily (Free Product vs Highly priced crap), but the corporate business wont trust a Google OS for many years to come. Big companies (Banks specially, I work at one) are very slow adopters.

I can't say specifically about Google OS, but there's the case of massive migration to Linux of Banco do Brasil which currently is the 2nd biggest bank in Latin America (was the 1st before the fusion of two other brazilian banks).
They migrated their PCs to Linux and now are about to migrate their ATMs to Linux aswell (currently running a customized OS/2 version). Few weeks ago I saw a demonstration of the new ATMs at the FISL, which are now in testing phase.

The other OS they use now run in their servers which is, unsurprisingly, AIX.

Thus I would say such kind of migration is possible.

Here in Brazil, we have a "e-CPF" (something like e-ID), which is basically a cert issued by some brazilian institutions (including Certisign Brasil, and some governamental offices). Banco do Brasil have a login page which uses this, so, it is more secure. The problem is: the e-CPF costs money to the end-user :-)

About bank security (and not "how to protect from phishing"): Banco do Brasil also have another technology to ensure an user is who it claims to be. When you connect the first time to their internet banking, your have read-only access to certain info, and you'll receive a number which identifies the computer. Then, you must go to any Banco do Brasil ATM in 48 hours or so and validate the computer code. Only after that you can fully use the Internet Banking.

but it still forces me to buy tax software every year.

Buy software? Here in Brazil, we can download the software from Receita Federal for free, and send them the information online, or go to the nearest Banco do Brasil and give them a floppy disk (for those that don't want / can't send online)

Banks have a reputation for being extremely conservative and set in their ways when it somes to changing software,

Indeed. But I knew those billions IBM invested in Linux would make a difference someday. :-)

and I'm surprised that a bank would make such a wholesale switch like this, especially to a platform no other bank has really used before. Still, good luck to them, it will be interesting to see who successfull the project will be.

That bank is controlled by the Brazilian government. It's a very important bank in Brazil, so I believe they have a big probability of success.

IIRC, they are running Linux on one (or more?) IBM mainframe (now, that explains it!). Their portal has been rewritten in JSP.

BTW, some other Brazilian banks are starting to be more Linux-friendly (although not using Linux themselves). Banco Itau', for example, now has a front page in their netbanking site with an "indexLinux.htm", to which you are redirected if you are using Linux. And yes, it works perfectly with any Mozilla-based browser! (No Java VM needed)