I agree, but I also am not sure how much it matters. I think the US banking system would get better if it had to, but it doesn't, because we have credit cards, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, etc. It does certainly suck for lower-income folks or people with bad credit who don't have great access to these things. There are also a lot of unbanked people in the US, but that's in some ways a separate issue.

Yes, things like wire transfers are annoying (and stressful), but most people do them only very rarely (like when buying a house). ACH is slow and a dumb protocol, but that's often a "set it and forget it" thing when you set up autopay for your electric utility or credit card or whatever, or set up direct deposit for a new employer.

Meanwhile, I can do 80% of the money-moving things I need to do with my phone, 19% with a little piece of plastic I always have on me, and the remaining 1% (or less, really) is mostly cash, with some teeny tiny fraction being wire transfers. I expect my situation isn't entirely typical (as I live in a large city and do a lot of my transactions on the internet). I'm sure many Americans use cash a lot more than I do (either out of necessity or desire), but it's... really not that bad?

I don't know.

I was helping a Canadian friend with their bank account and TD's website looks like it's from the 90's.

And getting an SMS message when your credit card is charged? Yeah, it used to be a separate website (why?) but no longer offered.

It looked absolutely archaic compared to my US bank.

Now compare your US bank to Asian or others outside the West.

Actually, just check screenshots in the App Store for foreign non-Western banks.

I've had a Singaporean bank account and their online presence seems similar to the US, but higher fees.

Is that what you were getting at?

I'm not aware of Singapore's system, I'm mostly thinking China (WePay, etc).