WASHINGTON _ The nation's biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., and Bank of America Corp., are rolling out a new money-transfer app called Zelle to take on Venmo and other mobile payment upstarts.
A consortium of 23 financial institutions previewed Zelle, which will be available next year, at an industry conference Sunday, according to Recode.
Zelle's website says users will be able to send money to almost anyone as long as they have a debit card. The money would be transferred immediately and could be used to pay bills or make payments to friends or others.
Zelle will be available to more than 76 million customers who already do mobile banking with the large financial firms, according to Bloomberg.
The initiative is designed to keep Square Cash, PayPal-owned Venmo and other mobile payment platforms from eating into bank business.
U.S. households made $1.2 trillion in person-to-person payments in 2014, according to research and consulting firm Aite Group.
More than 40 percent of millennials made mobile payments in 2014, compared with 12 percent of Baby Boomers, according to Aite.
