San Antonio-based Frost Bank this week became the 11th financial institution to join Early Warning’s real-time payments network, which will continue to operate under the clearXchange brand at least through the end of this year.
Frost, the largest independent bank in Texas, said it plans to extend Early Warning’s person-to-person payments services to customers through its online and mobile banking platforms under the name Frost Send Money, according to a Sept. 20 press release.
The move is just the beginning of what Early Warning expects will be a broad push by community and regional banks to adopt its real-time P-to-P service, which enables customers of participating banks to send funds to anyone in the U.S. with a bank account via an email address or mobile phone number.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo founded clearXchange to enable faster payments between customers of participating banks. Capital One, U.S. Bank, PNC and BB&T also are owners of the network and several other banks have come on board since its launch, including FirstBank.
The expansion of Early Warning's services to midsize and smaller banks is the next priority for the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based organization, said Ian Macallister, Early Warning’s vice president of partner strategy, in the release.
Sometime next year, Early Warning plans to replace the brand name clearXchange with a new moniker,
“We have not released any further details on the (Zelle) launch date or platform features and for now, clearXchange will continue to operate as an independent service as it onboards new member financial institutions,” the spokesperson said.
Frost sees the integration as a way for technology to enrich the bank’s relationship with its customers, said Phil Green, Frost Bank’s chairman and CEO.
