It is. It really is. I remember when I first moved to the US (from NZ) and it was like going back in time 10 years in banking.
There's also some completely bananas things that they've only just started to kind of rectify: For automatic payments or to send money to someone online you provide your bank acc# to the recipient and then they tell the bank to give them money from your account.
That's literally how it works - if someone gives you their bank acc# you can't send them money, but 50/50 you can withdraw money from their account.
It gets better. Here's how the "security" works, say you're using ETrade or whatever and you want to link an external account, you give them a bank account number. Then they withdraw some money from that account and ask you to verify how much was withdrawn. Note that it's not the bank that controls the other account verifying you're meant to be able to withdraw money - they're not involved. It's literally etrade (or whoever) ensuring that you own the other account before etrade lets you pull money out.
I live in the Czech Republic, otherwise a developing country, however also a fintech testbed. I feel 10 years back in time when I'm in Germany. I was surprised how much annoyed I was. I really don't understand the US.
There's also some completely bananas things that they've only just started to kind of rectify: For automatic payments or to send money to someone online you provide your bank acc# to the recipient and then they tell the bank to give them money from your account.
That's literally how it works - if someone gives you their bank acc# you can't send them money, but 50/50 you can withdraw money from their account.
It gets better. Here's how the "security" works, say you're using ETrade or whatever and you want to link an external account, you give them a bank account number. Then they withdraw some money from that account and ask you to verify how much was withdrawn. Note that it's not the bank that controls the other account verifying you're meant to be able to withdraw money - they're not involved. It's literally etrade (or whoever) ensuring that you own the other account before etrade lets you pull money out.
Think about how insane that is.