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Comment by paulmd | Hacker News Reader

> "Traditional money transfers are relatively costly due to currency exchange fees, and can take up to a few days," Albrecht told Reuters TV

Giro transfers clear within minutes. This is the day-to-day mechanism that EU citizens use to pay their bills. This smacks of a US-centric analyst who does not understand the Euro market at even the most basic level.

The reality is the US is decades behind the state-of-the-art in banking and pretty much none of the issues that are relevant to US citizens are relevant anywhere else in the world. Sending money to someone else's bank account within minutes is pretty much a solved problem, for anyone who isn't living in a 70s-era cheque-based world like the US banking system.

Sending some bits between highly trusted parties within a formal banking system is not some unsolved problem that only Bitcoin can tackle.

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> The reality is the US is decades behind the state-of-the-art in banking and pretty much none of the issues that are relevant to US citizens are relevant anywhere else in the world. Sending money to someone else's bank account within minutes is pretty much a solved problem, for anyone who isn't living in a 70s-era cheque-based world like the US banking system.

Can confirm. I've spent months in multiple Southern-African countires who all have chip-n-pin, instant bank transfers etc.

Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, etc make the USA look like the dark ages when it comes to banking

Honestlyntheu dont make them dark ages. Usa is in dark ages of customer finances services.

I travel to europe extensively and on my trip to what most people dont even know a country name Poland, in 2012 they had near-field contact debit and credit banks. All card use them! When i gave them my swipe credit card a clerk couldnt stop but mention he hasnt seen one in probably five years. I told him within few years USA will switch to chip cards, to what he told me they had those circa 2010. I seen friend using near field card it was a tap of a card to the reader (no sliding no alignments) in literally 0.8 seconds his card got read and authorized. Within seconds with his personal settings he got text message confirming purchase. We then went to ATM cause he owned me money. I said we probably need bank for that kind of amount. He just smiled at me and withdrew $8,000 worth of local currency (PLN) from an ATM!! Just like that. Meanwhile just yesterda for mothers day Bank of America just again block my debit card “due to suspicious activity” despite the fact i been using this specific BOA ATM on my street for last five years, and was taking only $350 usd. I called up and told them few months ago i raised up limit to your max of 1,500. I was explained due to my own security thos limit is reset every 6 months.

> Giro transfers clear within minutes. This is the day-to-day mechanism that EU citizens use to pay their bills.

Not true at all. This is just starting to get implemented in the EU. Until now transfers took usually a full banking day, thus nothing happened on the weekend and holidays. Last year over easter I had a transfer between two German banks take 7 days because of that.

And international transfers are still a nightmare.

Wow. In Argentina a transfer usually takes less than a minute. Sometimes my girlfriend texts me from the bank when she needs money, I make a transfer and in 2 minutes she has the cash in her hand.

It depends entirely on your Banks peering agreement.

It generally clears within minutes if you're transferring between participating Banks. If not, the maximum amount of time they're permitted to take is exactly one business day after they've accepted your order. This acceptance is not necessarily the time you've entered the details on their website. It is often, but there are some outliers that only accept them at a specific time each day. (But still let you schedule them at all times.)

FWIW I've never seen a SEPA transfer take 'minutes'. Usually it takes around one business day.

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