[xcrjm]

> A good example is that when it was proposed that one should be able to transfer their account number to another bank (as telecoms have to do for phone numbers here in Finland at least), the bank lobbyists said this is technically impossible, which is of course ridiculous.

This comparison doesn't make a ton of sense. Of course you can transfer your phone number - every phone number is mandated to be unique across all carriers. Bank account numbers are entirely internal to each bank and made up based on various arbitrary factors. What if the bank you want to move to already has an account with the same number as your account at your existing bank? How would that work?

[jampekka]

May depend on the country, but at least in Finland the account numbers have been unique across banks for ages. The first part refers to the bank (actually a branch at least back in the day) and the last part to the account within the bank. There was and is no need to specify the bank separately.

The mobile phone numbers had the same system. Three first numbers signified the operator, but the whole number it can now be transfered to another operator.

This is not hard stuff. The numbers aren't magic, they're just identifiers. We're not bound to mechanical routers or card sorting machines anymore.