[dprice1]

My guess is the previous commenter is in US. There's an excellent episode of the podcast "planet money" which addresses exactly this question, and which also explains why the system in the UK is much faster.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-...

[csomar]

Nope. Third-world here. I don't think it'll take a couple weeks in the US.