Just consider that until 2018 card purchases still required hand signatures, 15 years after Europe switched to chip-and-pin. Then the cosy credit-card duopoly, consisting of Visa and Mastercard, works with the banks to issue cards, with the result that there has been too little competition and sky-high profit margins.
The key to making payments more competitive in the US is to create a new network of financial plumbing: a “real-time” interbank-payment system that will permit near-instant and cheap transfers.
Read more from The Economist -Fintech comes to America at last