Velera Teams Up With Zelle to Drive Faster Payments for Smaller Credit Unions

Velera and Early Warning Services, the company behind Zelle, are partnering to broaden real-time payment offerings for small financial institutions.

The agreement is designed to bring Zelle’s peer-to-peer (P2P) services to minority depository institution (MDI) credit unions, expanding their access to cutting-edge payment solutions and helping them remain competitive, according to a Monday (April 14) press release.

“If credit unions are not offering Zelle, their members are likely to look elsewhere for the convenience of a P2P payments offering,” Amy Evans, senior vice president of Strategic Solutions at Velera said in the release. “It is clear consumers appreciate the convenience, ease and reliability of Zelle, three key drivers of consumer payment preferences.”

The collaboration aligns with a wider trend among community banks and credit unions that are increasingly adopting the P2P service. Early Warning Services found that 95% of the U.S. financial institutions offering Zelle are community banks and credit unions, per the release.

“Zelle is not just a tool for the big banks. It’s powering real-time payments for community banks and credit unions nationwide — from rural towns to urban neighborhoods,” Zelle General Manager Denise Leonhard said in the release. “…Zelle is helping local community banks and credit unions meet rising consumer expectations, compete with larger players, and bring modern financial tools to Main Street.”

Through the new partnership, Velera will guide credit unions through Zelle implementation, offering integration with existing mobile apps, data-based fraud detection, and analytics-driven reporting, the release said. For MDI credit unions, this means the potential to enhance member satisfaction, bolster trust, and strengthen local communities with a real-time payment experience on par with larger institutions.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Minding the Gap: What Separates the Best From the Rest in the Credit Union Space” found that FinTech collaboration and earmarking assets for investment and innovation are determinants of success. Given the fact that PYMNTS innovation measurements showed that forward-thinking, top-performing credit unions meet the digital expectations of their members 77% of the time, there’s quantifiable success tied to those approaches.

In a deep dive into the offerings most prized by consumers, 89% of top-performing credit unions offer real-time payments. Additionally, 49% of top performers implement in-house procedures to gather member suggestions for improvement. Roughly half of top-performing CUs test innovations in-house and with members before coming to the wider market with new products or services.