"Today, U.S. consumers can’t make a near-real-time payment in a convenient and cost effective way from any bank account to any other bank account," the Fed’s 13-page paper noted. "In a world where several other countries are moving to ubiquitous near-real-time retail payment systems, the U.S. payment system does not have this capability."

But the Fed, which historically has been wary of imposing mandates on banks, is trying not to come off as heavy-handed. And that cautious approach may make it harder to bring about change in the banking industry.

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The holy grail of person-to-person payments is the ability to send money instantaneously to anyone else’s mobile phone number. In Sweden, that’s been reality for over a year now, since the rollout of a system known as "Swish." The upgrades have brought Swedish consumers a lot of benefits, according to Lars Gunnstam, who heads the consortium of banks that runs Swish.

You can split a dinner bill while you’re still sitting in the restaurant. Or make a last-minute payment to your utility company. A food truck owner, who would otherwise waste a lot of time handling cash, can instead get paid via mobile phone. "He can immediately see that he has received the money," explains Gunnstam, an executive at the Swedish bank Nordea. "And you can immediately shake hands and say, ‘Fine, done.’ That is very important if you do business out in the street."