this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2026
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I’ve worked for multiple different financial institutions. I’ve been on the banker side and the consumer side of the industry and I can assure you banks absolutely do have the ability to send your money back instantly.
While there are certain federal and international laws that could impact transfer times, this is rare and not something your average Joe would run into.
Most banks want to hold onto your money for as long as possible because that’s how they earn their money. And banks aren’t the only ones who do this. Companies will hold out on issuing refunds for the same reason.
It’s sort of the perfect way to show the penny savings example I guess. Because yeah, the interested earned is pennies, but when you have a million pennies earning another million pennies… it adds up.
[EDITED: to changed an autocorrect from warned to earned]
I deposited a large check once — nothing that would get the attention of the IRS or anything, other than that I’m normally poor — to a regular national bank. They held it for about two weeks to “verify” it, aka invest and profit off it, so I immediately went over to the local credit union (who doesn’t do shit like that) and opened an account there. Got a good chunk of it transferred with little-to-no fuss and closed out my bank account with a middle finger.
In Europe there's a system called SEPA, which is a network that allows instant transfer of funds. Right now, by law, banks are required to allow consumers to use SEPA at the same conditions as the regular old bank transfer, which means I could send you money right now for free and you could receive it instantly anywhere in the EU.
The technology exists. Banks just have no incentive on implementing it
Warning, Pedantry Ahead: Regular SEPA is maximum 1 business day - that's what's currently mandated by law in the whole SEPA area.
SEPA Instant is what you're describing - that's only mandatory for banks /in the Euro area/, not all of Europe. (That said, our local banks here in Romania at least have offered instant payments in local currency for donkeys' as well.) Apparently SEPA Instant will be mandatory for whole SEPA area from next year.
(Full disclosure - edited above because I didn't realise SEPA-Instant was now mandatory in the Euro area since last year.)
As you say though, the technology absolutely exists. And not just within the SEPA area; I also have accounts in Thailand and China - a transfer from my Romanian account to my Thai account is literally instantaneous (it's not unusual to get the "you have received..." popup from my Thai banking app before the "you have sent..." popup,) and to my Chinese account takes 5 minutes, tops - 7 days/week. The idea of having to wait days - let alone business days - for a payment to clear is just wild "let's take a time machine back 30 years" stuff.
(I mean... Cheques! Seriously. They still use cheques... shakes head.)
USAA does this for certain refunds, but they take on a bit of risk to do so. They make the funds available to spend before they've actually been settled
That’s interesting, I’m not familiar with their practices specifically but that is interesting!