Europe has many old subways and bridges too and like in the US they can be difficult to upgrade for cost reasons. (E.g. The London Underground still lacks air con on some lines because of narrow tunnels; there are parts of the network built with asbestos in the tunnels. In both cases fixing it would require closing the line and rebuilding the tunnel, so it doesn’t happen)
That’s not true in banking though where many upgrades are software based and not so disruptive/expensive. The UK, and presumably other countries, did not start from the systems we have today - we moved from signatures to chip & pin, and from checks to bank transfers to instant bank transfers. My parents would write checks all the time when I was growing up, but I’m in my late 20s and have never written one in my life.
That’s not true in banking though where many upgrades are software based and not so disruptive/expensive. The UK, and presumably other countries, did not start from the systems we have today - we moved from signatures to chip & pin, and from checks to bank transfers to instant bank transfers. My parents would write checks all the time when I was growing up, but I’m in my late 20s and have never written one in my life.