Top News In Payments: Zelle Transaction Volumes Reach $49B; WeChat Pay Launches New Smartphone Feature

In today’s payments news, Zelle’s third-quarter results show that transaction volume increased by 73 percent. Also, Tencent’s WeChat Pay is launching a new payment function that allows people to transfer funds using a mobile phone number. And Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services.

Zuckerberg’s Testimony Paints Libra As Financial Inclusion Tool

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services on Tuesday (Oct. 22). He spoke about the company’s intentions with Libra and sought to allay the concerns of legislators as well as regulators around the world that the it could replace sovereign currency or be used for illicit purposes.

Zelle Transaction Volumes Hit $49B, Spike 73 Pct YOY

Zelle’s Q3 results show that its year-over-year payment values rose by 58 percent, while transaction volume increased by 73 percent. The network operator behind Zelle, Early Warning Services, announced that $49 billion was sent through the Zelle Network on 196 million transactions during Q3 of this year. Over 600 financial institutions are currently contracted to participate on the Zelle Network.

WeChat Pay Rolls Out Utility To Transfer Funds Between Smartphones

Tencent’s WeChat Pay is rolling out a new payment feature that allows people to transfer funds using a mobile phone number. Users of WeChat can unlock the function from the messaging app and transfer money to the receiver’s WeChat wallet by entering a phone number — even if both parties are not friends. The feature is, as it stands, available only on iOS.

Just Eat Rejects $6B Buyout Bid From Prosus

Just Eat, a London food delivery service, turned down a $6.2 billion offer from Prosus. This is the third time Just Eat rejected a takeover bid from Prosus, and the previous two bids were made privately. Just Eat’s board “unanimously recommends that shareholders reject the Prosus offer,” the firm told the AP.

REPORT: Adoption Of Instant Payments For Disbursements Has Quadrupled In Three Years

The share of U.S. consumers who have received instant disbursements jumped nearly fourfold during the past three years alone, rising from 11 percent in April 2017 to 42.2 percent this year. And just over half of all U.S. consumers have said they would like to take in disbursements through instant payment rails, making them the most in-demand payment method for receiving disbursements.

Visa On Launch Of Infinite Business For High-Spending SMBs

Visa said on Wednesday (Oct. 23) that it has debuted Visa Infinite Business, billed as an expansion of its business card product suite in the United States. The firm said that the new offering targets high-spend SMBs, building on the Visa Business as well as Visa Signature credit products already on offer.

In a PYMNTS interview, David Simon, senior vice president and global head of small business and medium enterprises at Visa, said that Visa Infinite Business — through Infinite B2B (tailored to everyday spend) and Infinite Preferred (focused on travel spend) — comes against a backdrop where 52 percent of SMBs leverage credit cards to run their businesses.