> Of course that model doesn't work for everything (it's usually a bad idea to pre-pay for goods or services with bank transfers since there is essentially no consumer protection in case the merchant goes bankrupt or turns out to be a fraudster), but I'm still fascinated by the US's lack of a "giro" system, i.e. an accountholder-initiated P2P and B2C push payment service.

We have wire transfers which work like this, through the FedWire system. They're instant, can't easily be reversed, and usually expensive and inconvenient to use.