Fiserv Connects 600 Banks, CUs To Zelle

Almost 600 banks and credit unions have joined the Turnkey Service from payments startup Zelle via the FinTech solutions firm Fiserv to enable person-to-person (P2P) payment capabilities, Fiserv announced on Monday (Feb. 24). 

Over 360 financial institutions (FIs) joined just in 2019 and the number of participants that are live on the platform has gone up 10 times since a year ago. There has been amplification in the number of users processing transactions as well as transactions being managed on the platform.

In 2019 the number of people sending money using Zelle via Fiserv went up 116 percent. Those receiving money on the platform went up 145 percent. Transactions went up by 207 percent year-over-year.

Among the FIs that joined Zelle include Patelco Credit Union and SunWest Federal Credit Union. 

“With Zelle, our members will have the ability to send and receive funds fast, and maintain control of their money by timing payments deliberately, even down to the hour,” said Kevin Landel, senior vice president of innovation and payments strategy at the $7.3 billion Patelco Credit Union of California. “This provides our members maximum flexibility to help them achieve financial health and wellbeing, our core mission at Patelco.”

With Zelle, users can send and receive money from one U.S. bank account to another, usually in minutes. Turnkey Service for Zelle makes the onboarding process easy for banks and credit unions while also lowering costs and increasing time to market.

“Keeping up with continually changing consumer expectations is an ongoing challenge for retail financial institutions,” said Tom Allanson, president, electronic payments, Fiserv. “Technology can level the playing field, and Turnkey Service for Zelle enables financial institutions of all sizes to offer P2P payments and grow customer interactions.”

“We initially took a ‘wait and see’ approach when it came to Zelle,” said Katie Defeo, marketing director at SunWest Federal Credit Union, which serves members in Maricopa County and the city of Tucson, Arizona. “Then we saw that the number one word being searched on our website was ‘Zelle’, and we changed our minds. We realized this was something our members were seeking, and Turnkey Service for Zelle offered a practical way for us to get started.”

The growth of P2P payments is part of the larger, global trend of real-time payment deployments, a general effort that not only involves shifting consumer demand, but also the development of new or improved payment technologies, along with regulatory changes.