Bank Of The West Taps Fiserv To Enable Zelle Payments For SMBs

BNP Paribas subsidiary Bank of the West has chosen Fiserv, Inc. to bring Zelle to small companies through Fiserv’s Turnkey Service for Zelle^®: Small Business offering, according to a Tuesday (Feb. 2) announcement.

Payments are at the core of Bank of the West’s digital strategy, which is an approach meant to heighten client engagement and forge more in-depth relationships, according to the announcement.

The bank is now bringing Zelle payments to small business clients of various sizes and sectors, after successfully leveraging Fiserv’s Turnkey Service for Zelle to allow for person-to-person (P2P) payments for individuals.

“We’ve seen through-the-roof growth of Zelle person-to-person payments among our retail banking customers, especially in the wake of COVID-19 … and we have been receiving significant customer demand from small businesses looking for similar capabilities,” Hisham Salama, executive vice president and chief digital officer at Bank of the West, said in the announcement.

With Turnkey Service for Zelle: Small Business, financial institutions (FIs) can enable small businesses with a U.S. bank account to send, request and obtain digital payments from qualified vendors and clients without using checks or cash.

Through the service, small companies typically get funds in a matter of minutes instead of days, as long as the recipient’s U.S. cell phone number or email address is already signed up for Zelle. They can also finish reconciliations in a more expedient manner, among other benefits, according to the announcement.

“There are an estimated 30 million small businesses in the U.S., and they want solutions that make it easier to make payments and get paid,” said Matt Wilcox, president of digital payments and data aggregation at Fiserv. “Bank of the West is helping to lead the way in offering Zelle capabilities to small business customers, who will benefit from the reach, connectivity and speed of Zelle.”

The news comes as Zelle exceeded the one-billion transaction mark as the pandemic led to a boost in demand.