It's less about private vs. public. It is more about national banks vs. regional banks. In Canada, the "Big 5" banks span the entire country. In the US, ther

It's less about private vs. public. It is more about national banks vs. regional banks. In Canada, the "Big 5" banks span the entire country. In the US, there are so many of these tiny regional banks. Harder to get everyone on board with a new bank-to-bank service. Especially with banking IT that is so rigid and every bank wanting to do their own thing. As an example, all the Big 5 Canadian use the following account number system: 123 12348 7234561. "123" is the Bank Number. "12348" is the Branch number (the last digit, eg. 8, specifies which province). "7234561" is the account number. If your account number starts with "7" then it's a US dollar account. Standardization helps!