CO-OP Financial Services recently announced a partnership with Zelle® that will enable CO-OP to offer person-to-person (P2P) payment capabilities to credit unions within its ecosystem. Credit unions with CO-OP account-based technology and the ability to offer Zelle in their mobile banking solutions will be able to take advantage of this partnership.
CO-OP Chief Product Officer Bruce Dragt commented on the announcement, explaining that:
“One of the biggest benefits of Zelle to a credit union is the potential it offers to support members as they increasingly rely on P2P payment technology to complete a variety of daily financial tasks. Zelle offers the day-to-day features members need and prefer to send and receive money, including fast funds availability.”
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic began, P2P payments were a core component of the U.S. payments ecosphere. Based on a survey of over 3,000 U.S. adults in June 2019, Mercator Advisory Group previously identified that “person-to-person payment services are continuing to grow as people and businesses find more use for it.”
Since then, COVID-19 has triggered the emergence of use cases related to health concerns, curtailed in-person transactions, and consumers’ hesitance to use cash. Consequently, credit unions are increasingly recognizing the importance of offering P2P services to their customers.
Zelle P2P activity volume was way up in the first half of 2020 as consumers found a greater need to pay others electronically during COVID-19 related lockdowns and social distancing. In a recent PaymentsJournal article, Mercator Advisory Group’s Director of Debit and Alternative Products Advisory Service, Sarah Grotta, explained that a rising number of financial institutions are accordingly taking steps to convert their existing user portfolios to the Zelle network:
“A recently released financial survey of financial institutions from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston: Financial Institutions across the U.S. Participate in the Mobile Landscape Transformation, indicates that 48% of institutions surveyed plan to implement Zelle.”
