FinTech Startup Curve Launches P2P Payments Feature

Curve, a banking app that consolidates all of a person’s bank cards into one card and app, is launching a new feature that will allow for person-to-person (P2P) payments, according to a report by TechCrunch.

The new feature is called “Curve Send,” and it will allow for a person to send from any linked bank account to other people in over 25 different currencies.

The company uses Visa and Mastercard APIs to handle the transfers, and it acts as an intermediary between the two parties.

“Curve Send instantly solves people’s problem of financial fragmentation by consolidating all their cards into one, eliminating the lengthy money transfer process experienced by most customers when they want to send money to their friends or peers using multiple bank accounts or multiple currencies,” the London-based FinTech said.

When someone uses Curve Send, they pick a contact and choose an account and an amount. The intended recipient gets a notification and a request to take a picture of the bank card of the account they want the money to go into.

Curve doesn’t charge fees, and the free version caps users at £500 ($650). Users who have Curve Black or Curve Metal are not capped.

CEO Shachar Bialick said “Curve is basically operating like an exchange” with Visa and Mastercard.

“We’ve done tests for the past two months, and people love it,” he said.

Curve’s head of OS Product, Diego Rivas, said Curve Send simplifies the process for sending money.

“Customers want to send money to their friends and family with just a few touches,” he said. “But with so many different options and the rise of challenger banks, the process is unnecessarily complicated, and customers end up having three to four apps just to send money. We wanted to make this whole process 10 times easier for our customers. Now they have one simple, smart platform which can move money from any account to any account, securely and fee free.”