Venmo

A group of senators on the Banking Committee sent a letter to the central bank chairman grilling him on the agency's efforts to develop a real-time payments system.

Ever since PayPal took control of Venmo as part of its 2013 purchase of Braintree, it has woven Venmo into more and more of its products. Even other acquisitions aren't immune to the spread of Venmo.

In immediate, unrestricted availability of funds, the only true providers are those networks operated by banks or other financial institutions, writes Jack Baldwin, CEO of Baldwin Hackett & Meeks.

Venmo has more than 40 million active users, PayPal has revealed for the first time. This finally gives the market a sense of how popular Venmo is, and sheds a little light on how it compares to the bank-run Zelle service.

Banks say easing rules on people with some criminal records will diversify the applicant pool; deal with Synchrony may be near.

As PayPal seeks to turn Venmo into a profit engine, the service has also taken steps to collect consumer debts, moves that are sure to spark controversy as some of the targeted users claim they have been fraud victims.

The market for P2P payments is finally taking off after years of false starts, but there are still many unanswered questions. The biggest one: How do banks get value out of offering this service free of charge?

The market for P2P payments is finally taking off after years of false starts, but there are still many unanswered questions. The biggest one: How do banks get value out of offering this service free of charge?

Venmo is not a moneymaker for PayPal yet, but that's not stopping the online and mobile payments giant from dreaming big about where its P2P service is headed.

Stadiums, arenas and theaters are natural fits for innovations such as social P2P, mobile commerce and transferrable authentication. This, in turn, makes such venues a magnet for the payments industry’s most recognizable brands.