In April 2024 we kicked off a project to create an integration to Zelle from our online banking platforms, via a solution provided by CO-OP. This solution utilizes the CO-OP shared branching rails and infrastructure we have built for our national shared branching solution, although a credit union will not have to use CO-OP shared branching in order to take advantage of this new interface.
We are still in the very early design stages of this project, but here are some key features we know about at this point (subject to change).
The user experience:
- Member logs in to online banking and clicks a “Send money with Zelle” SSO link
- Will launch a Zelle application (using a UI maintained by FIS), displayed within a frame (some minimal branding options may be available)
- We’ll pass information about the member to check for enrollment status
- If the member isn’t enrolled yet, terms & conditions are presented
- Member can enroll using phone number, email address, or both (a verification code is sent to complete enrollment)
- Once enrolled member can send/money via Zelle
- Member can choose names from their contact list or create from scratch
How transactions work:
- Will ride via the shared branch transaction communication rails
- All processing functionality is the same, using a different network ID and transaction processing codes – so if you are a SB client, you’ll start seeing additional traffic coming through along with shared branch activity (same daily reports, same settlement process, etc.)
- If recipient is already enrolled, funds move right away; if not, the receipt must enroll and designate where the money should go before transaction is initiated to the member (so CU*BASE won’t know about the transaction until then)
Other features:
- CUs don’t need to participate in the CO-OP SB network, but they will be using our Issuer module to interface to CU*BASE
- We can develop this for both desktop/mobile web as well as the mobile app (we may decide to do one at a time)
- Members who have already enrolled via another FI will have the option of transferring their existing token
- CO-OP handles all alert notifications to the phone/email address provided by the member when enrolled
- Split requests (one request for funds to be sent to multiple people) are supported
- Member can view their activity within the Zelle UI
Status as of May 2023: Project is currently in still in the early technical design phase.
Chefs for this recipe: Dawn Moore
