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Zelle, the peer-to-peer payment network operated by Early Warning Services LLC, announced late Monday a 28% increase in transaction volume in 2023 and that the fourth quarter of 2023 was its single largest quarter based on volume since its launch in 2017.
Overall, Zelle handled 2.9 billion transactions totaling $806 billion in 2023. Both transaction and dollar volume increased 28% year over year.
During the fourth quarter of 2023, transactions sent across the network totaled more than $219 billion, the highest amount during a single quarter in the network’s history. On average, consumers sent more than $100 million in transactions per hour across the network during the fourth quarter.
A key factor in Zelle’s growth is consumer education, especially around product safety, Jose Resendiz, chief operations officer for Early Warning.
“Since we launched Zelle, we’ve invested in consumer education efforts around product safety and financial literacy, using paid media, partnerships with our financial institutions and brands, social media content and the Zelle website,” Resendiz says by email. “In 2023, we educated millions of consumers through a variety of partnerships. Our partners have included Better Business Bureau, Her Campus, Utilities United Against Scams, National Council on Aging, Vox Media and more.”
In addition broader consumer education efforts, Zelle reminds consumers via in-app alerts to send money only to people they know and trust. “In 2023, Early Warning financial institutions cautioned users more than 700 million times before they made payments,” Resendiz says.
Payments to and from small business continue to big a part of Zelle’s volume. Consumers sent 217 million payments to small businesses totaling more than $100 billion in 2023, a 44% and 39% increase respectively from the prior year. At the same time, small businesses sent 179 million payments through the network totaling $113 billion in 2023, up 34% and 29%, respectively, from 2022. Small businesses are using Zelle to pay employees, vendors, utilities, and rent.
