What value do banks add in this day and age? They arent loaning all the near free money the central bank is offering to sustain commerce, so my feeling they will be cut out at some point soon.
No, most good money is ownership of an asset, like possibly Gold, for example. For Euros, it's ownership of high-grade assets.
In the US, it's ownership of TBonds. Now, yes, TBonds are a form of debt, so there can't be a USD without the US making loans, but, the dollar itself is not debt, it's ownership of debt, which are different things.
Banks #1 job is managing risk. They do the work of determining who is credit worthy, on what terms and not, making the loans and taking on the risk.
Not all loans are guaranteed to be paid back. The interest rates the central banks offer require you to pay every single cent back. Defaults aren't permitted. Conventional banks take on the entire risk of default and they compensate for it by requiring collateral or higher interest rates.
If a bank is in danger of running out of money, then (in the US, where I work in banking) the federal regulators step in and take over the bank. They sell off assets to other banks and pay depositors their money (up to the EXTREMELY generous limits of FDIC insurance). The funds to pay for the losses come from an insurance system ("FDIC") that all banks pay into. (And in case of a widespread collapse of many banks at once, the federal government underwrites the FIDC insurance program.)
What value do banks add in this day and age? They arent loaning all the near free money the central bank is offering to sustain commerce, so my feeling they will be cut out at some point soon.