My bank has a website I can use to bank through, I dont even need an app.

The whole issue with banking apps must seem strange to people in some countries, and make perfect sense to people in other countries. My whole country rely on a 2FA app made by the banks. It’s in every aspect of society. Buying a bus ticket, booking a time for health care, doing taxes, applying for an apartment, signing contracts, all done with the same banking app. Only people with stallmanesque convictions manage without, with lots of effort. So far that app works on e/os/ and GrapheneOS, but not regular desktop Linux.

Oh, that’s a terrifying single point of failure.

2FA is the opposite of a single point of failure though. In order to impersonate you someone has to have access to your authentication device and your master password. There are no passwords to remember or get leaked/stolen, and you still have traditional identification and a physical backup in the form of codes or an authentication device.

In Sweden it’s like a minute of your time to set up a new phone, or at worst a trip to the bank if you lost your authenticator.

It also has a screen showing what information or authorization is being requested so that it’s much harder to get scammed.

This is terrible for disabled people.

I’m having trouble imagining how this makes anything more difficult than a traditional password setup. Can you please explain?

I know there’s issues surrounding its use, but solving those issues involves changing other policies, not getting rid of e-identification. For example, allowing someone to access their medical records in person instead of demanding they use the website.

I recently got back to my country. They have e-id. I opened an account. Got paid. My phone broke. Signing up to the app requires a computer with an e-id reader. I use it once every couple of years. It took me ages to find one. Only to realize the stupid browser extension wasn’t working with linux. At the end I had to go to the stupid city hall. I’m disabled. I would rather use my personal passphrase. What seems easy to you may not be for everybody. I hate it here. Everything is bureaucratic, security first so that the already rich banker doesn’t loose 20 euros to fraudster, nothing it adapted, everything is loud and complicated and annoying.