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by root_axis 444 days ago
Yes. U.S. is way behind in banking tech. Even in poorer countries like many of those in latam, you can easily do direct bank transfers. It's pretty common to see e.g. street vendors with QR codes that you can scan to send money directly without the need for a non-bank intermediary.
1 comments
disgruntledphd2 443 days ago
I'm not sure that it's entirely that the US is behind, it's that they introduced credit cards so early that they've ended up with those dominating the space.

And now because of that, there's lobbying against direct bank transfers and capping of interchange fees.

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root_axis 443 days ago
That explanation makes sense to me, but I'd still consider it accurate to say that the U.S. is behind in this regard since credit cards are pretty ubiquitous in most of those countries as well.
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disgruntledphd2 443 days ago
True, but that's a lot more recent than US use of credit cards. Like, up till about 10 years ago most Irish consumers had non visa/mc debit cards and credit cards were rarer (mostly those Maestro debits).

I mean, the US should definitely improve their bank2bank stuff and implement FedNow (I think that's what it's called) but there's less pressure to do so as basically everyone has and accepts credit cards (not true in lots of Western Europe).

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