Early Warning, the American bank-owned operator of the clearXchange P2P payments network, has struck deals with Visa and MasterCard that paves the way for debit card-based transactions on the platform.
ClearXchange currently lets customers of its owners - Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Capital One and US Bank - send funds directly from their bank accounts to the recipients' using only an email address or mobile phone number.
Now Early Warning has agreed deals to tap the Visa Direct and MasterCard Send platforms to let US debit card holders send money to each other, significantly expanding clearXchange's reach.
"Early Warning is focused on providing real-time payments to all US consumers," says Lou Anne Alexander, group president, payments, Early Warning. "Through our agreement with MasterCard, Early Warning is able to significantly extend the reach of the clearXchange network."
Jack Forestell, SVP, global product, Visa, says: "We are very excited to work with Early Warning to expand the reach of their P2P service which will greatly benefit their member financial institutions and their members’ customers."
The agreements come as America's big banks seek to push back against a host of fast-growing rivals in the P2P payments arena. The likes of Facebook and Square are establishing themselves as strong contenders, while PayPal recently revealed that its Venmo service processed $4 billion in transactions in the second quarter, a 140% year-on-year rise.