You write, "In a country with a somewhat modern payments system (e.g., not the United States) ..."
Can you state what you think distinguishes non-modern, "somewhat modern" and modern payments systems and why you apparently believe the U.S. falls into the non-modern category?
(I don't mind your being snide about the U.S. We probably deserve it. But I think you need to clarify/defend your position in this instance.)
I can send cash to people from my deposit account by email/text message. Cheque usage is rare, but when I get them, I can just photograph them from an app to deposit them. Inter-bank settlement is “fast.”
Based on what the fintech people are pushing as “revolutionary,” this is not happening on a national basis in the US. As far as I can tell, the typical American bank is where Canadian banks were in the 1990s. Europeans were pushing electronic payments even faster than Canada.
In developing countries, they went straight to wireless payments.
That backwardness is on par with the backwardness of US land title and registry systems. The GFC aftermath showed that starkly when it came to mortgage backed securities.
You write, "In a country with a somewhat modern payments system (e.g., not the United States) ..."
Can you state what you think distinguishes non-modern, "somewhat modern" and modern payments systems and why you apparently believe the U.S. falls into the non-modern category?
(I don't mind your being snide about the U.S. We probably deserve it. But I think you need to clarify/defend your position in this instance.)
I can send cash to people from my deposit account by email/text message. Cheque usage is rare, but when I get them, I can just photograph them from an app to deposit them. Inter-bank settlement is “fast.”
Based on what the fintech people are pushing as “revolutionary,” this is not happening on a national basis in the US. As far as I can tell, the typical American bank is where Canadian banks were in the 1990s. Europeans were pushing electronic payments even faster than Canada.
In developing countries, they went straight to wireless payments.
That backwardness is on par with the backwardness of US land title and registry systems. The GFC aftermath showed that starkly when it came to mortgage backed securities.