[mr_luc]

(Man I've liked these first couple of articles).

I see a few comments saying "this is stuff the rest of the world has had for a while now."

That's probably true to some extent. But it undersells the value being reported on, because the US market is a valuable one.

'Surprise! The richest, biggest economy in the world had banking/financial systems that were inefficient in X, believe it or not -- but that's in the progress of being fixed, which means Y is now more possible/profitable.'

[ErrantX]

I suppose the surprise is how long it has taken; here in the UK banking has been free for a long time (in fact, non-free banking is viewed as innovative!) and faster payments has been in place for over a decade.