| Snarky answer - there's no real motivation to change it and from an institutional perspective it's not broken. - it costs a lot to fix or redesign a money system moving billions of dollars in volume per day - change is risky - any impacts on reliability would be unacceptable and have significant economic impact [both direct and indirect] - stakeholders that fully understand the existing system and have the knowledge to redesign it are part of that system and benefit from it - as an insider, it's hard not to make money within the system - it's a closed ecosystem - access to the system is controlled by the established players (like Wells Fargo, BoA, Visa, Mastercard, etc.) and they will revoke access if you threaten their position. - Insiders are making so much money at this game that end consumers have little leverage at this scale. Paypal, stripe, venmo, zelle, square, name-your-favorite-fintech-start-up are all working within the existing system by exposing easy to use integrations and interfaces. They aren't really fixing anything, just wrapping it up, putting a bow on it and making a handful of basis points on your transactions. The RTP system is a chance to fix it but I suspect it will take years for that to replace the existing systems. I've heard it discussed as an additional feature not a replacement. [I know HN likes proof but any real numbers I can't disclosed due to NDAs. I'm basing my opinion on the margins I saw and heard referenced while working at a smaller financial institution] |