July 22, 2010
Fiserv launches ZashPay, paving the way for an Australian deployment
US online banking vendor Fiserv has officially launched its person-to-person mobile payments service known as ZashPay to American consumers, paving the way for an Australian bank deployment.
ZashPay allows anyone to send and receive money (currently only in the US), using only the recipients name and email address or mobile phone number.
Fiserv says 200 financial institutions have committed to offer ZashPay, although only one of its clients, San Diego County Credit Union, has gone live with the offering.
The launch comes on the back of PayPal’s highly successful Bump payments application, which received more than one million downloads in the first week.
Fiserv uses mobile technology from New Zealand-based vendor M-Com, which counts a number of major Australian and New Zealand banks among its customers.
Though a number of these banks are rumoured to be working on a mobile peer-to-peer payments offering, we’re yet to see any actual deployments.
Online Banking Review understands Westpac is preparing to announce its agreement with Fiserv for its new online banking platform in coming weeks.
With the Fiserv platform, Westpac would gain access to ZashPay in an off-the-shelf format, since ZashPay is built into a Fiserv online payment service currently used by more than 3,000 financial institutions
The question is, will Westpac back the mobile channel?
The bank currently seems more focused on improving customer service as its main acquisition strategy. Person-to-person payments shouldn’t be overlooked however, as they involve non-customers using a highly convenient service that comes with built-in branding and marketing opportunities.
What do you think? Are Australian banks missing an important opportunity? Which bank will be the first to embrace mobile payments?
Written by: Charis
Filed Under: Technology, The Better Banking Blog
Tags: Fiserv, M-Com, mobile payments, P2P payments, Westpac, ZashPay
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Adam Allan
July 22, 2010 at 9:17 pm
I like the Pay Pass technology and this is one step further down the track. Early adopters will love it but unless it gains mainstream support and appeal it is likely to be a marginal proposition for the big banks. Merchant support will be crucial.
As with all new innovations time will tell.