Often one of the first reflections a new person has to Time Banking is, oh, Time Banking is just like a barter exchange. No. A barter is a one to one direct exchange while time banking is not. Barter is synchronous (directly face to face at the same time) while time banking is asynchronous and not linked to a direct concurrent moment in time, and occurs independent of a face to face direct exchange and will occur at any time over time with any one [members only])