IIUC the EU basically had to force banks to implement this via a mandate. I don't see "business friendly" US lawmakers doing the same anytime soon. The joys of the Free market™!

There is even a QR code standard for SEPA transfers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPC_QR_code

In America you can also send money to mostly anyone else in America via Zelle (most banks in the U.S. support Zelle)

One major difference is that the American banking market is significantly more fragmented as a policy choice compared to Europe. By share of deposits, the top four are JPMorgan Chase at 16%, BofA at 15%, Wells Fargo at 11%, and Citibank at 5%.

The fragmentation means it’s very difficult to get thousands of credit unions and smaller banks compliant with things, since the lesser regulations for these smaller institutions is a policy choice to let them survive and thrive. The US favors these to avoid market concentrations like the big cross border European bank failures in the financial crisis, and also because smaller banks lend more to small or rural businesses.

Sure, and that takes 24 hours to be processed (business days only). And IBANs are not very user friendly.

In the US, this is solved by PayPal. Not sure what's taking so long for europe to launch a competitor.

But no one wants that, bank numbers are too much hassle and typing out 34 digits is error prone.

Everyone in Europe also uses Tikkie, Blik whatever else service in other countries.