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by jorvi 11 days ago
Feels odd that you exclude mentioning the EU, which has had instant transfers for more than a decade. More than two decades, if you include things like iDeal from The Netherlands.
3 comments

Wasn't intentional, I mention SEPA and Wero in other comments, not intended to be an enumeration of all instant payment systems currently active globally. My apologies!

https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/PYMNTS-Rea...

https://www.emerald.com/cemj/article/33/4/575/1248919/The-ri...

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

> not intended to be an enumeration of all 54 instant payment systems currently active.

Even then, not mentioning those who pretty much started / invented instant transfers still seems odd :) but no need to apologize haha, maybe I was a bit too abrasive.

I get why you prioritized to mention those though. The Chinese and Indians have leapfrogged us. No more fussy legacy (digital) cards, just scan a QR and go. Even illicit food stalls and street wanderers have accounts, when they wouldn't be able to get a 'real' bank account.

And the Chinese and Indians don't have to pay tribute to the Mastercard-Visa overlords either. Although Wero and the digital Euro might eventually change that for Europe too.

Can you imagine how cumbersome conversations would become if people felt obligated to qualify ad-hoc statements with what amounts to a historical ledger?

Every new entry would open up an opinion around “if you included that, why didn’t you include this?”

In such cases we’ll always up at Kevin Bacon.

The comment literally mentioned how unusual Pix adaption is and how innovative it is. It is neither of those things. Because of aforementioned history.
Some banks in some parts of the EU have - SEPA instant was only mandated in January 2025, only for Euro payments.
Canadians have been able to transfer money via email for ages, only Americans think their system is unique, it is. Uniquely inefficient and costly.