Fiserv Marries Person-to-Person Payments to Mobile Banking

Fiserv is deepening the tie between person-to-person payments and mobile banking.

The core banking tech vendor is integrating its Popmoney person-to-person service with its Mobiliti mobile banking and payments technology. The goal is to allow people to pay peers directly from their mobile banking account—using the recipient's email address or mobile phone number to initiate the transaction. Consumers are also able to review transaction histories.

“As more of our members adopt and experience the benefits of mobile banking, they are ready to go beyond basic access to account information to use the service in new ways,” said Donna Bland, president and chief executive officer of Golden 1 Credit Union, an adopter of the combined technology, in a press release.

Popmoney will be available within the Mobiliti user interface, creating a centralized banking and payments hub. While there’s likely client overlap between the two products, Fiserv has an opportunity to increase adoption for both services. Mobiliti is currently used by more than 1,300 financial institutions. Popmoney, which is offered by more than 1,800 financial institutions including PNC, is also integrated into the CheckFree RXP electronic billing and payment product.

The integration brings together a family of tech products that Fiserv has acquired through acquisition—Fiserv acquired CheckFree in 2007, and Popmoney came on board following Fiserv’s purchase of CashEdge in 2011.  Popmoney’s competitors include clearXchange, a person-to-person system operated by Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase—as well as social payment platforms such as SmartyPig.

“For many consumers, their financial institution is the ideal hub from which to manage the many types of payments they make each month – from paying bills to paying other people,” said Rahul Gupta, group president of digital payment solutions for Fiserv, in a release.

Fiserv did not immediately respond to requests for comment.