San Francisco-based global banking giant Wells Fargo will begin offering a real-time, person-to-person money transfer service in August. According to the company, more than 17 million of its customers will be able to use a mobile app to send money to almost anyone in the United States with a bank account. The transfers will occur instantaneously, making funds available immediately, and come at no cost.
To send money, a person simply needs the recipient’s email address or phone number. Then, after confirming a funds transfer, the person receiving the money will get a notification that allows them to withdraw, re-transfer, or save the money into their account. Security and fraud protection is increased since no account information is shared between the two people involved in the transaction, making it fast and safe to send money to anyone for any reason.
“One thing we’ve been hearing is that [customers would] like to be able to quickly send money to their friends, family and other people who bank with other financial institutions,” said Brett Pitts, head of digital in Wells Fargo’s virtual channels practice.
The mobile app will be able to send money to anyone who has an account with Wells Fargo, Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, or any other bank that operates within the Early Warning clearXchange network. This now-industry-standard platform is jointly owned by the aforementioned banks and merged with security firm Early Warning last October in an attempt to heighten privacy and security for its users.
“The bank CEOs are providing leadership at a time when the industry is looking for guidance and customers’ expectations have rapidly evolved,” said Paul Finch, CEO of Early Warning, in a statement last year after the merger. “With this acquisition, Early Warning is bringing together immediate funds availability, integrated authentication and fraud management capabilities into a single platform. The resulting security, reliability and consistency among financial institution payment services will provide a required catalyst to advance real-time payments.”
