Some of the banks behind Zelle want to take the American P2P payments service to the checkout, taking on Visa and Mastercard, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Initially launched to help banks take on Venmo, Zelle has seen huge growth during the pandemic, facilitating 1.8 billion transactions, worth $490 billion, in 2021.
Now, some of Zelle's owners - including Bank of America and Wells Fargo - want to push home their advantage and enable the service for retail payments, according to the WSJ. However, others including JPMorgan are resisting the idea.
The banks already earn billions of dollars via merchant fees for Visa and Mastercard payments. However, notes the Journal, Zelle would give them more control, enabling them to set their own rules and fees.