While the big banks are still somewhat struggling to get out of recession or at least to get some respect back from the general public, U.S. Bank — the nation’s 5th largest commercial bank — is innovating. Together with “Intelligent Money Movement services provider” CashEdge, they are set to launch person-to-person online and mobile payments service – Popmoney. Set to hit the market later in the year, the service will be available to the bank’s mobile banking customers through usbank.com and the downloadable mobile banking application, the U.S. Bank Mobile Wallet.
As you may know (how these kinds of services work), Popmoney will enable users to send money directly from their bank account to anyone with an email address, mobile phone number and a bank account. It’s that easy, almost as Paypal, but directly connected to your bank account.
It’s worth adding that CashEdge has processed nearly $50 billion in online funds transfers for bank customers in 2009, meaning they certainly know what they’re doing. I’m eager to see how many people will actually use Popmoney on a daily basis – it certainly sounds promising…