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Early Warning Services LLC, which operates the Zelle peer-to-peer payment network, announced early Friday it has appointed Cameron Fowler as chief executive, effective October 2, 2023.
Fowler replaces Albert Ko, who left the company in May to become CEO of Auctane, which provides shipping software and operates such brands as Stamps.com, ShipStation, and ShippingEasy. Ko, who had led Early Warning since 2019, joined Auctane in June and will reportedly become a member of Auctane’s board of directors.
Prior to joining Early Warning, Fowler was chief strategy and operations officer at BMO Financial Group, where he led BMO’s digital initiatives. Fowler joined BMO from Barclays, where he oversaw the London-based bank’s digital and discretionary wealth businesses throughout the U.K., Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
The change in top management at Early Warning comes as the bank-owned company is in the process of developing a digital wallet called Paze, which was unveiled in March and began a pilot in June in preparation for a rollout expected during the first half of next year. Paze is designed exclusively for e-commerce use. While the wallet will reportedly be supported by Early Warning’s bank owners, plans are to make it available to banks of all sizes.
“Pilot users are now using their existing credit and debit cards to shop at participating online merchants,” an Early Warning spokesperson says in an email message. “We will increasingly expand the pilot through the rest of this year. The pilot will enable us to see Paze working for a broad consumer base.”
Meanwhile, Fowler arrives at a time of double-digit growth for Zelle while the network confronts queries from U.S. Senators regarding so-called scams related to some peer-to-peer payments processed on the platform. During the first quarter of 2023, Zelle processed 639 million transactions for consumers and small businesses with a total value of nearly $180 billion. Those volumes, which are the latest figures from the network, increased 29% and 31%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2022.
