Citizens Makes Zelle Available to Businesses Through Mobile Banking App

Citizens is now making Zelle available to small business customers through its mobile banking app.

The financial institution said in a Wednesday (Feb. 1) press release that the peer-to-peer (P2P) payments network allows small businesses to pay and get paid quickly and easily.

By using Zelle through the mobile banking app, small businesses can use a solution with which they are familiar, receive payments on the go and improve cash flow by eliminating the need to wait for checks to clear. They can also reduce the need to handle cash and checks, and complete transactions by sharing only an email address or U.S. mobile phone address, according to the press release.

“As one of the banks that offers Zelle to its eligible small business customers, Citizens is constantly improving the total business banking experience for customers in several important areas, such as adding the speed and convenience of Zelle within the Citizens mobile banking app,” Citizens Head of Business Banking Sarah Lindstrom said in the release. “Our focus on innovation helps our small business customers optimize their financial performance and be more successful.”

Zelle is operated by Early Warning Services (EWS) — a digital payments platform owned by Bank of America, Capital One, J.P. Morgan, PNC, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo — which is looking to innovate as well by developing a digital bank wallet, as PYMNTS’ Karen Webster wrote Monday (Jan. 30).

Zelle is supported by 20% of all banks and has worked for six years to drive ubiquity and share as it lags behind P2P players like PayPal, Venmo, Square Cash and Apple Cash, Webster wrote.

While trailing those competitors, Zelle has grown its own numbers. EWS reported in September that consumers and businesses had sent more than 5 billion transactions totaling close to $1.5 trillion over Zelle since the P2P payments player launched in 2017.

At the time of that report, Zelle’s year-over-year payment values were up by 29%, and its payment volume had increased by 27%.

“Zelle has transformed the way more than a hundred million people move money and conduct digital transactions,” Early Warning CEO Al Ko said at the time. “We are part of consumers’ everyday lives and committed to being their trusted source for digital payments that are easy to use and don’t require the sharing of any bank account information.”