The older the banking system is, the less modern it is. Germany was a technological leader before the 1st world war, and still is in some ways, and could be considered a financial center for at least part of the world for the same period(like the eu) So it's financial system is horrible, the same for all "modern" countries. If you want to see modern finance, look at countries that are wealthy enough to afford it but only became this way in the last few decades(like since the 90s)
A politically heated examples:
if you go to the farthest village of Russia, where only poor people live(for example 12h drive from Irkutsk), you will be able to pay with contactless payments in their local store(before the war, you would be able to pay with Visa/Mastercard/Apple/Google/etc).
And in China you will be able to pay with qr codes based payments even to a homeless entrepreneur on the street, that tries to sell you selfmade slippers, or something like that.
I don’t recognize the pattern you describe. For various reasons I’ve done a lot of travel over the last month or so - 2 “old money” European countries, a “new money” European country, a Middle Eastern country and Australia and I didn’t use cash or have to sign anything once in 5 or 6 weeks - I paid for everything with a contactless card. Unless something has dramatically changed in the last 2 years, my experience in the USA during my last trip there was that of a payments system that seemed stuck in the 1970s. In my experience, the global division would be between the USA and the rest of the world.
Can you describe stuck in the 70s? I just use contactless pay pretty much exclusively unless a place is cash only (which isn’t the norm). What are you doing in your country?
I don't think this true. Canada's banking system is not modern and essentially controlled by 5 banks. Tap to pay is everywhere these days even the stalls at the farmers market.
A politically heated examples: if you go to the farthest village of Russia, where only poor people live(for example 12h drive from Irkutsk), you will be able to pay with contactless payments in their local store(before the war, you would be able to pay with Visa/Mastercard/Apple/Google/etc).
And in China you will be able to pay with qr codes based payments even to a homeless entrepreneur on the street, that tries to sell you selfmade slippers, or something like that.