ZashPay Gets off to a Fast Start

In one of my previous posts I introduced ZashPay, a Fiserv product that facilitate person to person payments.   It seems that ZashPay is becoming quite popular even in the midst of competition from competitors such as PayPay.. Fiserv Inc. reports its 3-month-old ZashPay service is making headway with client financial institutions. The service now claims some 400,000 registered users; while more than 400 banks and credit unions have signed on to offer it, with 100 of those having gone live.

Fiserv, a major provider of banking and payments technology, launched ZashPay in July with 200 financial institutions already signed up but with a roster of heavy-duty rivals to contend with. While Fiserv enjoys a built-in advantage with 3,100 client institutions for its bill-pay processing service, companies like PayPal Inc., Obopay Inc., and CashEdge Inc. have been active in marketing P2P payment capabilities to banks

While Fiserv expected ZashPay to be used chiefly for smaller transactions such as payments to babysitters or shares of dinner tabs, this is not what the company has seen in the early going. Instead, tickets are averaging $150, indicating that people are instead using the service for such payments as textbook fees for children at college or fees to contractors like painters or landscapers, notes Steve Shaw, director of strategic marketing for electronic banking services at Fiserv,
Usage is also more frequent than Fiserv expected, Shaw says, with those who have adopted the service making three to four payments a month.