I agree with the article - the reason the US banks are behind is because the banks haven't been required to do proper upgrades. Consumers rarely have the power to change things in this situation: The pressure would either need to come from the government or it would have to come from a partner company - something along the lines of Visa or paypal or the like.<p>I will say that the system in Europe seems much more secure: additionally at least here in Norway people do give out their bank account number to others - which was shocking to me as an american at first, but truly is simply more telling about the low risk level in doing so. The other person wouldn't be able to do anything but deposit money with the bank account number, rendering transactions safer.