[deathanatos]

> It's still baffling to me that the US, unlike most other countries, have never developed "push" bank/credit transfers.

My (US) bank has this functionality. It's a real pain to set up, and most people I know will prefer Venmo/Paypal, or god help me Zello, before a bank-to-bank transfer.

> my bank and I can agree on any security measures we like

Well … so it's more like my bank and I can agree on any security measures the bank likes. My opinion doesn't matter to them, or there'd be some actual cryptography involved.

My bank's set up / "security" involves an odd song and dance of depositing a few cents into the destination's bank account over multiple transactions over multiple days, and then using the transaction amounts as some sort of authentication.

I've done it for transfers that exceed what I am comfortable sending on the payment services above. (And I don't have/use checks.)

[lxgr]

> Well … so it's more like my bank and I can agree on any security measures the bank likes.

Yes, I'm unfortunately very aware of the incredible market failure in the US in that regard.

There's a much bigger variety of means of initiating bank transfers in Europe, probably simply because push bank transfers are a thing in the first place (the security of which banks are often liable for).

Looking at the dumpster fire that is Zelle, US banks apparently just don't seem to want to cannibalize their profitable debit/credit card business with a cheap, fast, and secure payment method.