Core processor Jack Henry & Associates might have signed a deal with Zelle‘s parent company Early Warning in 2016, but it won’t be deploying the P2P service until 2020, at earliest, Bank Innovation has learned.

In fact, the core processor only started beta testing Zelle for Symitar this year. Jack Henry has begun certification testing for its bank-focused SilverLake core and Symitar. It expects to complete testing for all cores by the end of 2019, Rusiru Gunasena, senior director for JHA Payment Solutions at Jack Henry, told Bank Innovation. 

Symitar is Jack Henry’s core credit union data processing system that serves 680 credit unions, of which about 40% are credit unions with assets of $1 billion or greater, according to one report.

One of those credit unions is Chicago-based Alliant Credit Union, which has about $10 billion in assets.

“We are waiting for the service [Zelle] to be made available on Symitar,” Heather Lally, vice president of operations at Alliant Credit Union, told Bank Innovation. “We will then make a strategic decision on providing Zelle to our members. It’s on our roadmap.”

From a technology point of view, it’s not complicated for a CU to provide such a P2P capability, Rob Maretsky, VP of digital services at Partners Federal Credit Union (FCU), previously explained to Bank Innovation. In order to integrate the service, the credit union requires access to a gateway that allows the credit union’s system to connect to a payments platform. This gateway is to be provided by the core processor. 

“We are building a centralized payments hub, JHA PayCenter, that will connect all of our banking and credit union cores with all faster payment networks,” Jack Henry’s Gunasena said. “The first network implementation will be Zelle. Core clients using Jack Henry’s GoDough (mobile) and Banno (online and mobile) platforms will be provided with a full-service integration including settlement and reconciliation, debit network integration for out of network transactions, reporting, and data contribution.”

The integration process doesn’t stop here. The credit union will have to then sign a participant agreement with Zelle, a step required by Early Warning. After this step, the FI will contract directly with JHA for these services, Gunasena explained.

JHA PayCenter will then start onboarding, but in batches. This process is an “efficient and faster process than direct integration with Zelle,” Gunasena said.

Also Read: Do Community Banks Really Need Zelle?

And given that Symitar has almost 700 credit unions on its platform suggests it will be a lengthy process. Whether the onboarding process is done on a first-come-first-serve basis or based on the CU’s size remains undisclosed.

A lengthy onboarding process could lead to backlog. In fact, Zelle experienced something similar. In the past, Zelle was criticized for only opening its gateways to larger institutions. It opened access for the rest last year, and now has over 200 FIs on the waitlist, Bank Innovation previously reported. Zelle could take over a year to onboard these FIs.

It’s true that, for some credit unions, Zelle might not be a priority. For instance, Maretsky told Bank Innovation that FCU’s top priority is adding digital deposits and enabling digital redemption, or couponing features related to its cards and rewards program. P2P is important, he said, but it’s not the main focus.

But for many others, like Alliant Credit Union, P2P is a top priority.

Zelle is currently partnered with other core processors CO-OP Financial Services, Fiserv and FIS. Through its standalone app, about 5,000 smaller FIs – including credit unions – are represented.

For 2018, Zelle reported $119 billion in payments on 433 million transactions processed, compared to $75 billion for 247 million transactions in 2017.

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