Three out of the four top banks are launching a mobile-phone and e-mail service to transfer money.
(Photo: David Paul Morris/Getty Images)
Studies have shown that Blacks and Latinos use their cell phones the most. African-Americans use, on average, more than 1,300 minutes a month and Latinos use 826 minutes, in comparison to 647 minutes used by whites. Additionally, African-Americans send and receive around 780 text messages a month, compared to 566 texts used by whites.
Today a new service could persuade all groups to use their phones even more. Money can now be transferred using only a cell phone or e-mail address.
Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. are taking the lead in an effort to retain “fee-weary customers” who may have taken advantage of competitor services such as PayPal. Paypal processed $27.4 billion in payments during the first quarter of this year alone. Now, through a service called clearXchange, customers can use their current bank account to send money electronically.
"Customers will be able to send and receive money even more quickly and easily — with full confidence their funds are in a bank account without worrying about cash, checks or higher-cost services," Jack Stephenson, director of Mobile, eCommerce and Payments at JPMorgan told the Associated Press.
In prior years, in order to transfer money, a routing number and the involvement of Federal Reserve banks was necessary.
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