Why does a bank payment takes a long time to be received, especially if there is a weekend in the middle?
In: 123
Sadly banks haven’t had an incentive to make it faster. They make money from the fact that you aren’t earning interest in the middle. In the EU (and UK) it took government intervention and payments can be instant.
In the UK the faster payments service was introduced in 2008. SEPA instant credit transfer became operational in 2017. Both operate in under 10 seconds. I often experience almost real time in the UK.
In the US FedNow went live in July 2023 but seems to be limited to interbank payments across 35 banks and credit unions. That suggests a way to go in the US given the level of banking fragmentation.
Lesson learned – tough regulation is needed to make banks change and US retail banking is still archaic.
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