The government could improve this process significantly by establishing a bank account for every American at the Federal Reserve. House Democrats floated the idea in their version of the legislation authorizing the stimulus payments, but it didn’t make the final draft. Sweden actually launched its own version in February. The premise is simple: If everyone has a Fed account, with none of the fees or minimum balance restrictions that discourage millions of Americans from opening accounts at commercial banks, then it would be easier to distribute stimulus payments — particularly to those who are both most in need and hardest to reach. The government could deposit funds directly; people could withdraw the money at ATMs, make payments with debit cards or move the money to a bank.

Under the current system, even the fastest payments — direct deposits — move much more slowly in the United States than in many other developed nations.

The Treasury initiated the payments on Friday afternoon by instructing the Fed to remove money from the government’s account and transfer it to individual accounts at banks across the country. The Fed, however, doesn’t work on weekends, so banks were not notified of the deposits until Monday. Furthermore, the Fed allows banks to wait at least one business day before making the full amount of a federal deposit available for withdrawal.

A handful of banks voluntarily provided the money early; most waited until Wednesday.

Such a waiting period once was unavoidable. A bank presented with a check from another bank needed time to confirm that the check was real and that the funds were available, and then for the money to move. The waiting period still exists, however, because the Fed, which operates the system used for most of those confirmations and transfers, has been dragging its feet.

Japan has required real-time payments since the 1990s. Mexico mandated instant transfers in 2004. The United Kingdom joined the club in 2008. And last year, the Fed announced that it, too, finally was developing a real-time payment system, but it wouldn’t come online before 2023.

The banking industry doesn’t mind the wait. Banks have developed a lucrative business in allowing customers — particularly those waiting for a check to clear — to withdraw more money than is legally available, and then charging a hefty fee for the overdraft. Aaron Klein, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, calculates delayed deposits have cost consumers more than $100 billion since 2008 — a combination of bank overdraft fees plus fees collected by check-cashing companies that offer an alternative to waiting, at a high price.

The effect is a transfer of wealth from poor customers to rich shareholders. Some 75 percent of overdraft fees are paid by 8 percent of customers, according to a study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. These are lower-income customers with low balances. Meanwhile, the chief executive of a Minnesota bank named his boat the “Overdraft.”