[sofixa]

I'm not sure that's a good excuse. Most Western European nations adopted the same systems shortly afterwards, and had the same type of legacy (cheques, fees all over the place, slow transfers)... But they haven't stopped there and have kept innovating and modernising. A big part of the innovation, which many Americans will hate to hear, has been enforced by the EU. Fast (seconds) and free transfers, as well as low card transaction fees have all been forced by EU laws and regulations. The banks would without a doubt prefer to be making more money from those things, but nobody is asking them.