In what’s likely to be a major change in how individuals exchange funds digitally, the nation’s banking industry is preparing to launch its answer to the popular mobile payments app Venmo.
Five of the nation’s largest banks, according to Reuters, will next week launch their new payment network, called Zelle. Another two dozen banks and credit unions are expected to join the network over the next year.
Zelle is designed to allow bank customers to instantly send money to each other—known as person-to-person payments—with a few taps on their smartphones. Those behind the project claim the improvement over Pay-Pal-owned Venmo is that Zelle more quickly shifts funds between participating bank accounts. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo & Co, U.S. Bancorp and Capital One Financial Corp. will be the first to plug into Zelle.
