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Splitting bar tab? Leading banks team to offer truly instant cash transfers from your phone

By Daniel Petrov

Updated: Mar 09, 2016, 5:02 AM

Mobile payments

PayPal's popular Venmo pay share app might soon be running for its life, as the banks take over

Splitting bills, paying for services on the spot or donating money? These used to take days to post to the other person's account, even with instant payment services like Paypal's Venmo and the like. Well, some of America's largest banks have apparently teamed up to make those quick transactions truly instant, reports Reuters, so that they post to the other person's account within minutes rather than days.

In fact, Bank of America is expected to announce the service as soon as today for transfers to U.S. Bancorp customers, with JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and others expected to join the fun later on. The instant payments will take advantage of the so-called clearXchange system that the banks jointly own, which in its fastest parts allows for almost immediate postings between accounts.

If the banks manage to pull this off, and build appealing apps to do it from your phone, popular services like Venmo could bite their tongue, as they might be hip and trendy, but only the banks own the means to make transfers between them instantaneous for now. Of course, Venmo won't sit still, and is planning to offer its own same-day transactions through a dedicated clearing house. Good times for us mere users, though.

source: Reuters

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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena from 2010 to 2025, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.