Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• The Zelle person-to-person payments network announced its service will go live in the mobile-banking apps of more than 30 financial institutions beginning this week and continuing over the next 12 months. The coverage will include more than 86 million mobile-banking consumers, Zelle said, adding that more than 51 million transactions totaling more than $16 billion flowed through its network in the first quarter. The Zelle network, previously known as clearXchange, is operated by Early Warning Services LLC.
• In related news, bank processor Fiserv Inc. said a number of banks and credit unions are joining the Zelle person-to-person payments network through its Turnkey Service for Zelle service. These institutions include Citizens Bank, Dollar Bank, First National Bank of Pennsylvania, and SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union. Previously joining were Ally Bank, Bank of the West, and Boeing Employees Credit Union. Fiserv cites Aite Group research indicating financial institutions controlled 83% of the digital P2P market last year.
• In yet other Zelle news, Early Warning said it signed an agreement with mobile-authentication provider Payfone to streamline risk assessment in consumer enrollment and transaction authentication for the network.
• Some 91% of financial and payment professionals believe payments fraud will become a bigger threat in the next two to three years, up from 89% last year, according to a survey of 400 professionals conducted by TD Bank at the NACHA conference this spring. Sixty-four percent indicated they or one of their clients were compromised within the past year. The most common incidents were email compromise (20%), account takeover (19%), and data breach (15%).
• Retailer Target Corp. said it will merge its Cartwheel electronic-coupons app into its main Target mobile app this summer; later, Target plans to add mobile-payment capabilities for holders of its RedCard.
• Processor Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) announced it has introduced a fraud-prevention product in conjunction with Featurespace, a U.K.-based data-analytics specialist. TSYS Foresight Score with Featurespace generates fraud and risk scores based on machine learning.
• Bitcoin continued its price surge, breaching the $3,000 level before retreating to just above $2,800 in early trading Monday. Only three weeks ago, the cryptocurrency soared past the $2,000 mark for the first time in its 8-year history. Bitcoin has now nearly tripled in value since the start of the year.
