Considering how long it took chip and pin to become predominant (which is to say still not 100%) I would say US banking is pretty behind most of the world.
Yeah so supporting checks doesn't really mean you're not at the forefront of technology. If anything, the fact that US banks allow people to take pictures of checks, and have done so for like the last 5 years at least, is an example of the kind of innovation seen in the US banking system.
I actually have to write checks regularly to pay my utility bills, or I have to pay a $2.00 convenience fee to have the transaction processed by a third-party hired by the state. Not to mention, I randomly receive checks in the mail from events I speak at or for travel reimbursement or university reimbursement or the like. I love that I can snap a picture and wham my check is deposited.
Not to mention things like Apple Pay, which, without support, configuration, and advice from the banking industry wouldn't be a thing. Naturally they created the technology for the phone, but banks do the rest. How is that not innovation?
> I actually have to write checks regularly to pay my utility bills, or I have to pay a $2.00 convenience fee to have the transaction processed by a third-party hired by the state.
This is exactly why US payment systems are not at the forefront of technology.. whether one can snap a picture and use OCR or not is irrelevant (the phrase "like lipstick on a pig" comes to mind)
That is because of government regulations and infrastructure, not because banks are not technologically advanced. I can easily use something like, say, Chase's QuickPay to pay any recipient. The government just won't accept that form of payment. That has absolutely nothing to do with financial technology. The technology exists and is in use, the government just doesn't use it. I also can't use Apple Pay/Google Pay with the government. Does that mean that Apple/Google aren't technologically advanced? No. It means the government isn't.
First, you have a bunch of for-profit fiefdoms with mutually incompatible payment technologies all trying to own it all, refusing to adopt standards. No government should support non-standard payment systems, whereby they have to support all of them, and the on-going support and development baggage that entails.
Second, they lobby to prevent the proper funding of a fast federal payment transaction system, i.e. making the necessary improvements so EFT can take minutes instead of days. They don't want that to be fast or free because it then obliterates their business models if anyone can just plug into that standardized system. Other governments have done this and that's why they have faster in-country payments (and often even in the Eurozone), despite their "regulations and infrastructure" such as they are.
Your example of QuickPay takes 4-5 days to/from a non-Chase account. That's dog slow, no matter the reason, compared to same country transfers in almost any other industrialized country. I can't think of a slower country off hand.
U.S. banks are overwhelmingly using Windows XP as their OS of choice in ATMs, still today. The height of technological achievement!
The open source world has created an alternative system which works extremely well, lacking mostly in usability factors, which could be resolved pretty quickly...but proprietary networks are entrenched quite deeply, so it will be a while before we can use digital cash - probably legislative action will be required, or a mass rebellion against the costs imposed by the payment networks. Sadly, retailers can't seem to think that far ahead.
It has little to do with the government. I dare say the vast major of US small and even some medium businesses are like this. I still have to write a rent check to my rental company every month, because otherwise I'd have to shell out an additional $30 every month for the privilege of paying through their website.
Hmm not sure if if that's serious or a subtle satire on the complexity of backwards compatibility...
But it seems like the EU method of requiring a systematic API access to your banking and being able to send direct payments for all of those things above (minus the 'convenience fee' I think) would be nicer...
I think it must have been more than 10 years ago since I've seen my last check and that was an Amex Traveller Cheque