Wells Fargo to launch real-time P2P payments in US
Service launches in August
Wells Fargo will launch real-time person-to-person (P2P) transactions in the US – for more than 17 million mobile customers.
Beginning 1 August, the service will allow Wells Fargo’s customers to send funds in real-time at “no cost” to any customer of a bank that participates in the real-time service, which operates on Early Warning’s clearXchange network.
This development follows on from earlier this year, when some of the major US banks announced they were planning to tap into the instant payments market via their digital network.
The banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and US Bancorp, said at the time they plan to use their jointly-owned network, clearXchange, to let their customers transfer money.
Brett Pitts, head of digital for Wells Fargo virtual channels, says its new service will allow customers to “securely send and receive money with tens of millions of banking customers across the country, at any time, with immediate funds availability”.
Customers will be able to access real-time P2P payments first through Wells Fargo’s mobile and tablet apps. Using the email address or phone number of the payment recipient, they will initiate a P2P payment, which will generate and send a payment notification to the recipient telling them their funds are available to spend, withdraw, transfer or save. Account information is not shared between the sender and receiver, and all information is transmitted “securely”.
