Actually yes.
From Switzerland to my brother in Belgium. It was transferred on the same business day at no expense to him or me. Look up SEPA[1] for details.
Just because the American banking system is the complete shits this does not necessarily apply to the rest of the world.
Do you think it's as easy for those in India, China, or Kenya, for instance?
Actually yes. Take a look at xoom.com and it's competitors for example (flat rate money transfers at a fraction of swift fees). Only issue is getting money out of those countries. But that is a political and national issue.
Or for people without a bank account?
> Or for people without a bank account?
I'm having strong doubts that you actually understand how the world banks. There are hundreds of millions of people who don't have bank accounts, and use electronic payments through their cell providers.
Venezuela barely has a functioning electrical grid, so cryptocurrency would not seem to be a foolproof solution there.
It's probably easier to transfer funds via M-Pesa then from a bank account in Delaware to a bank account in Detroit
And, at least in theory, America is a wealthy country without any borders.
I can easily pay a street seller from my US bank account, directly to his/her phone, in seconds.
Pains me to say this because I had this international bank/credit card to M-Pesa transfers idea a decade ago, a professor dissuaded me from pursuing it.
5 years later, a bunch of services launched and many are thriving.
Check out IBM world wire.
Also the SCT inst scheme has started being rolled out.
edit: also, those banks are UK ones. I'm not inclined to open accounts there with Brexit going on. Foreign accounts are also a pain for tax admin.
Yes, the SEPA scheme is old and working only during business days according to the TARGET2 calendar, but you definitely can process a transfer within a couple hours (my online stock broker does).
On another level, why should the state have a list of my accounts at all? It already sees all the accounts at banks within their territory. They don't need to concern themselves with accounts outside their jurisdiction.
In the context of income taxes, it should be enough to report total earnings, regardless of which specific account holds them.