After six years, the big banks have finally debuted “Zelle,” their competitor to Venmo that works inside the apps of participating banks.
Zelle is meant for casual person-to-person payments, like paying someone back for dinner or splitting a utility bill. All you need to send money to someone is their email address or phone number. If this sounds like Venmo, that’s because it is very similar in functionality.
But the fundamental difference here is that Zelle is backed by over 30 of the biggest banks: Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and so on. That encompasses over 86 million customers. Zelle also doesn’t have its own app yet, but instead lives within the app of your bank, giving it the ability to easily send and receive money. A standalone app is coming later this year, however.
Zelle isn’t the only new entrant into the market that could make Venmo execs nervous.
This article originally posted on BusinessInsider.com.
