Your Mother’s Maiden Name Is Not a Secret
Does anyone know the cause of the large and long standing difference in banking in US vs Europe?<p>In europe:<p>-for 15 or so years already, web banking has been with 2nd factor authentication (since its inception I assume). In previous decades we would get devices where you need to type numbers from its lcd screen into the webpage login. Today mobile auth apps are taking over.<p>-I have never seen a bank have security questions like "mothers maiden name" as backup. No backup questions at all. I guess you go to the bank's office if you forget it?<p>-"wiring" money between european bank accounts is free (and not called wiring, not sure what in english though), for as long as I remember. It's not some special type of transaction, it's the main way to pay bills, get salary, pay each other, ...<p>-paper cheques don't exist since over a decade<p>When I hear how US banking is, it somehow evokes images of an old stuffy 70's office to my mind... lots of paper, maybe a slow cobol mainframe somewhere, which can only support 8 character passwords in all caps or something like that...