BECU, which has over 600,000 members, began offering Popmoney on March 20 through its website becu.org.

Popmoney is the first email and mobile person-to-person payments service that allows credit union members and bank customers to send money directly from their online or mobile banking service, simply using the recipient's email, mobile number or bank account information. Popmoney provides support for text messaging, WAP and downloadable mobile applications, enabling financial institutions to extend their P2P functionality to mobile phones.

"We are excited to be the first credit union in the country to offer this service. At BECU we strive to make banking as easy and convenient as possible for our members. That means offering services that allow them to bank wherever and whenever they want," said Howie Wu, Vice President of Virtual Banking, BECU. "Popmoney helps us meet that goal by extending the reach of our online and mobile banking capabilities to include person-to-person payments - a simple, secure and convenient way for our members to send money directly from their BECU account to anyone for free."

"BECU is a great partner," said Neil Platt, Senior Vice President and General Manager, US Banking, CashEdge Inc. "They understand the importance of bringing innovation and service to their clients, and they've demonstrated that understanding by being industry leaders in delivering Popmoney. We expect that Popmoney will help drive acquisition and client engagement - creating new revenue streams for them."

Popmoney leverages the proven reliability, security and strength of CashEdge's money movement platform, which in 2008 processed nearly $50 billion in funds transfers for bank customers. For current CashEdge clients, Popmoney is a simple upgrade of their existing TransferNow service.