[midvar]

Am i reading too much into this?

The twitter user just so happens to works for a company that uses the technology the "good Samaritan" used. I just glanced at who the guy was, and found it funny that he works in the industry. Who knows, maybe that's why he found it so awesome.

"In April 2018, TransferWise joined Faster Payments as the first non-bank payment service provider to be a directly connected settling participant,[23] after being the first of its kind to gain access to Bank of England's Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system.[24]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster_Payments_Service

"Money transfer firm TransferWise has become the first non-bank company with direct access to Britain’s Faster Payments Scheme, which the start-up said on Wednesday would help it compete with banks on sending money overseas."

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-transferwise-britain/start...

[Symbiote]

The system has existed for over a decade, and the slower predecessor for over 50 years. It's a normal thing in Britain, and doesn't need to be advertised.

I don't think his work has affected his reaction here.

[p0llard]

Yes.

Pretty much any domestic bank transfer initiated electronically via mobile/online banking will be cleared through Faster Payments up to a limit of about £25,000 ($32,000) for most banks (the theoretical limit is an order of magnitude higher), making it the de facto way of transferring money in the UK. When I was a student, bank transfers by Faster Payments were more common than cash payments for settling small debts between friends.

In addition, BACS/CHAPS transfers (the other two main electronic clearing systems in the UK) typically incur fees, and would normally only be used if the value exceeds the limit for Faster Payments. In addition, Faster Payments normally clears "instantly" (i.e. in seconds); it's literally the most convenient way I know of to transfer money domestically in the UK, and is accordingly ubiquitous: cash requires you to have exact change and have cash to hand, which is increasingly rare in Europe; BTC addresses are too long compared to a UK account number/sort code.

Having recently moved to the US for a year, I've noticed that the financial institutions tend to be years/decades behind Europe in terms of electronic payment processing and clearing.

[davchana]

This... In India we have UPI Unified Payment Interface, in which with a bank account & phone number, you can signup to any of the tens of participating banks UPI address, in format of user@bank Mine is dav@hdfcbank. Totally safe & one way only, incoming. You just need to plug this into your bank app, in micro seconds the money will be out of your account & in to my account. Works 24x7x365

[madeofpalk]

"the technology the "good Samaritan" used" is just what anyone in the UK uses to send money to someone else. It's been standardised for like... forever, and is nothing special or worth astroturfing for.

[peterburkimsher]

It is coincidental that the person who lost their wallet is working in that industry, but it probably helped the story go viral instead of just disappearing.

I happen to be friends with the guy who found the wallet - we met at the CouchSurfing meetup in Kaohsiung, when he visited Taiwan.

This was his personal reaction:

"I found a wallet in the middle of the road while cycling home from work today. I couldn't find the guy on Facebook, but one of his bank cards had his sort code and account number printed on it, so I got in touch by transferring him 4p and including my phone number in the payment references. It worked, and he tweeted about it, and it's gone viral! Unfortunately so have I (with a cold) but this is making me feel much better"

"A fitting end to perhaps the strangest day of my life. More reflection tomorrow once I've wrapped my head round it all x" (with a link to a video from 7News Australia about it).

[netsharc]

Twitter wouldn't load for me (well done 2019 JS-heavy interface!), so that's the story...

If he had the bank card he could've looked up the person's name on social media (if it's unique enough), or even call the bank, a friend forgot his wallet in a store once and got a call from his bank telling him so, and to contact this number of the finder. Cleverly, the bank didn't give out my friend's number to the finder. This was not in the US though, reading about US banks, I'd imagine they're less helpful.

[lazyasciiart]

But that would be way more effort.