The largest US banks are joining forces to create a digital wallet.

Source: Pixabay.com

Wells Fargo, Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase and four other American banks are currently working on creating a digital product that will allow users to pay for purchases online. This virtual wallet will be linked to debit and credit cards.

The wallet will be managed by Early Warning Services LLC, the company that owns the Zelle money transfer service. The new product will work separately from Zelle. The developers intend to start mass implementation of the new product in the second half of this year.

One of the main goals of the joint activities of the largest US banks is to ensure their own competitiveness in the field of online payments with third-party operators such as PayPal and Apple. Banks are unhappy that their interaction with customers is limited in the digital payment industry. The main competitor is Apple. The tech giant is actively exploring the financial services industry and is working on a savings account at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Also, a digital wallet will allow banks to increase the degree of protection of clients from fraud. Customers will not need to enter their card numbers. Additional identification procedures not only increase the risk of fraud but also often cause rejected payments.

Banks expect that 150 million debit and credit cards will be available in the wallet after the launch. U.S. consumers who have used their cards online in recent years and provided an email address and phone number will have automatic access to the new product.

Financial organizations are clarifying the details of customer service that will use a digital wallet. It is most likely that consumers will enter their email addresses on the checkout page. The wallet will be launched in cooperation with Visa and Mastercard.

As we have reported earlier, China’s Official Wallet App Launches Offline Payments.