Early Warning Services, LLC, the network operator behind Zelle®, today announced record payment volume and value in 2020 with 1.2 billion transactions, totaling $307 billion sent — an increase of 58% and 62% year-over-year, respectively.
Four hundred and fifty-seven new financial institutions also joined the Zelle Network in 2020.
"Despite challenging societal circumstances in 2020, we are proud of the role Zelle played in enabling businesses and consumers to leverage digital payments in their everyday lives," said Al Ko, CEO of Early Warning Services, LLC. "2021 is off to an amazing start with 850 banks and credit unions processing payments. We are making considerable progress towards our goal of every U.S. Financial Institution joining our network and look forward to working with our reseller partners in adding more participants every day."
Nearly 7,000 financial institutions are represented in the Zelle Network via their customers using the Zelle common mobile app.
While most consumers experience Zelle through the mobile banking apps of their banks and credit unions, customers of nearly 7,000 financial institutions rely on the Zelle mobile app today for fast, safe and easy digital payments. Demand from community banks and credit unions for Zelle is high, with Aite Group finding that 67 percent of community banks and credit unions reporting that their customers are asking for Zelle2. Aite also reported that through a combination of the financial institutions offering Zelle directly and partnerships with debit network operators, Zelle estimates it can reach 97% of DDAs.
"Nearly half of community banks and credit unions not yet offering Zelle plan to implement within the next 12 months," said Talie Baker, senior analyst, Aite Group. "Financial institutions that have implemented Zelle are seeing up to 300% year-over-year growth and report customers/members using Zelle are more profitable, stay with the FI longer, and use more products and services."
P2P reaches Mainstream Adoption; Small Businesses and Corporates Adopt Zelle for Real-Time Payments
Today, more than 80% of consumers either use or plan to use P2P services - and nearly 1/5 (19%) of consumers began or planned to use P2P during the pandemic, according to research by Zelle. These same consumers and more can now use Zelle to send money to eligible small businesses, with 11 financial institutions—Bank of America, Bank of the West, Chase, Citi, FirstBank, Frost, Investors Bank, Morgan Stanley, Truist, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo—having launched Zelle for small businesses in 2020. Corporations are also turning to Zelle to meet consumer demands. In 2020, Disbursements with Zelle achieved a 41% increase year-over-year as corporations disbursed funds to individuals electronically rather than checks.