IIUC the EU basically had to force banks to implement this via a mandate. I don't see "business friendly" US lawmakers doing the same anytime soon. The joys of the Free market™!

I mean, yes, it was mandated, but I am decently confident a usable system would have emerged one way or the other. In Germany we had a standardized API for online banking (HBCI) just because banks agreed it would be reasonable to do that.

There is even a QR code standard for SEPA transfers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPC_QR_code

TIL. Many thanks.-

One major difference is that the American banking market is significantly more fragmented as a policy choice compared to Europe. By share of deposits, the top four are JPMorgan Chase at 16%, BofA at 15%, Wells Fargo at 11%, and Citibank at 5%.

The fragmentation means it’s very difficult to get thousands of credit unions and smaller banks compliant with things, since the lesser regulations for these smaller institutions is a policy choice to let them survive and thrive. The US favors these to avoid market concentrations like the big cross border European bank failures in the financial crisis, and also because smaller banks lend more to small or rural businesses.

In America you can also send money to mostly anyone else in America via Zelle (most banks in the U.S. support Zelle)

Sure, and that takes 24 hours to be processed (business days only). And IBANs are not very user friendly.

In the US, this is solved by PayPal. Not sure what's taking so long for europe to launch a competitor.

In the UK it takes a few seconds. And works 24/7.

> Sure, and that takes 24 hours to be processed (business days only)

There's SEPA instant now (that starts to be ubiquitous).

Check SEPA Instant Credit :)

Your response sounds a bit defensive of the US, my intention is not to start a tribe war and I apologise if I have done that. There are plenty of things that the US does well that Europe does not, if that's any consolation.

Paypal exists in the EU as well but this is a layer on top of a banking system and not quite a "native" solution. I would like a "native banking" way to send and receive money when I am both in the EU and the US :)

But no one wants that, bank numbers are too much hassle and typing out 34 digits is error prone.

Everyone in Europe also uses Tikkie, Blik whatever else service in other countries.

When I want to send money to a friend of acquaintance, they generally show/send me a payment QR code, which contains their bank account number and amount. From what I can tell, this is typical in the Czech Republic.

My bank account number is 14 numbers plus a suffix.