Historically, multiple bank accounts at different banks in Germany were a way to speed up payments, in a time when wire transfers were dependent on local distan

Historically, multiple bank accounts at different banks in Germany were a way to speed up payments, in a time when wire transfers were dependent on local distance and different banking networks which exchanged wire transfer data on magnet tape in central bank parking garages (and thus were called "Garagenverfahren"). Which ended not too long ago, IIRC in 2006... If you wanted the invoice to lead to cashflow quickly, you asked the customer to pay to an account that would speed up payment.