[ketralnis]

> Are you serious? Why would _anyone_ design a system like this?

Because it's descended from writing simple letters of credit (and by this I literally mean a letter that says "Hey bank, pay John here $15 out of my account kthx"), and giant ancient heavily regulated institutions are terrified of change.

The system wasn't designed exactly, it just sort of evolved

[pjc50]

Also, the US has a very weak culture of consumer protection and regulation; solutions that require co-operation between competing entities are much harder to get off the ground. See the ACA software mess.