Fresh off its January announcement to acquire payments processor First Data Corporation, financial technology vendor Fiserv seems to be banking on a breakout year for the bank-backed P2P payment service Zelle.

Zelle transactions exceeded $400 million and grew 75% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2018, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Yabuki noted in his opening comments during the Fiserv’s earnings call on Thursday.

“We expect broad industry adoption to accelerate over the next 24 months, as evidenced by the nearly 100 new clients we signed for Zelle in the fourth quarter alone, which is more than the total signings in the first three quarters in the year,” he said.

Yabuki said Fiserv, in particular, has “opportunities to package our payments value proposition in unique and interesting ways.” As an example, he said that MUFG Union Bank recently selected Fiserv’s turnkey Zelle Solution, along with its instant Dovetail Payments Platform, to enable real-time enterprise payment capabilities. He said he expects those solutions will be integrated later this year.

However, Zelle will also be offering its P2P service to core processor technology provider Finastra this year, Bank Innovation recently reported.

“Overall, we believe our leadership as the most experienced standalone, as well as integrated Zelle provider, will enable us to deliver payments innovation and client value to the financial industry,” he said.

CFO Bob Hau said P2P transactions from Fiserv’s Popmoney and Zelle solutions grew a combined 74% for the quarter and 44% for the year, “showcasing the strong growth potential” of the payment technologies. He said Zelle volume alone in 2018 was up more than six times over the prior year.

Revenues in Fiserv’s Payments and Industry Products segment increased by 9.1% YOY to $944 million.

On the First Data deal, Yabuki said early client reaction “has been extremely positive.”

“The model is compelling with leadership positions across multiple solutions and numerous ways to grow and prosper,” he said. “We also intend to enable meaningful new client value along several axes through increased investments and strategic solutions, unique and compelling end-to-end integration, and as important, by identifying new and unique sources of value at the intersection of technology innovation and data.”

Yabuki also repeated goals of $500 million in incremental revenue synergies through a five-year period and $900 million in cost savings.

Shares in Fiserv and First Data were up about 1.6% as of 3:20 p.m.

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