CO-OP Financial Services has partnered with Zelle to expand P2P payments access for credit union members.
The deal is significant in part because of CO-OP’s status as one of the nation’s largest credit union payments firms, including its alignment with major core banking platforms and its ubiquity across the country through the CO-OP shared branch and ATM networks. The partnership is also remarkable because some credit unions were initially
Credit unions will need CO-OP account technology in place and the ability to offer Zelle within their mobile banking platforms in order to provide the service to members. Thousands of credit unions already utilize CO-OP technology so the partnership should speed up implementation of Zelle across the industry.
Three credit unions have already gone live with the service and more than a dozen others had signed up as of Thursday.
CO-OP said the partnership is particularly well-suited to the coronavirus era, in which social distancing, remote work and other factors limit the ability for in-person transactions.
“Zelle enables credit unions to support members in many ways consistently, both now as they adjust to the ‘new normal’ brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, and going forward,” said Bruce Dragt, CO-OP’s chief product officer.
