Zelle:

Has there ever been a more anticipated launch of a P2P service? (Venmo doesn’t count; we didn’t know it was coming).

Since this app was announced in 2016, the intrigue has only grown. Zelle is a P2P service supported by more than 20 banks that can be integrated into pre-existing mobile apps.

Features from the app have already appeared within Bank of America’s mobile app. The Zelle branding will be carried across the apps, to advertise its universality to customers. However, it’s the launch of Zelle’s standalone app, slated for later in the year, that’s been the most anticipated.

Aside from its 20 bank partners, Zelle will also facilitate money movement over Visa and Mastercard payment rails to create a fast, connected P2P ecosystem. No wonder it’s called a “Venmo-killer”–and no wonder it’s included on this list.

Starling Bank:

Banking without the bank branch, through your smartphone, or even through Alexa? As a mobile-first bank, Starling is making great headway toward the fintech dream.

The U.K.-based fintech (first Starling, now Monzo–why does the United Kingdom have all of the luck?) is aiming to give its customers all of the same financial products as a traditional bank would. Starling wants to do so without the physical branches, using a digital account, a single bank card, and a mobile device.

The bank has also experimented with smart home assistant Alexa, integrating its API into the device to test out the possibility of voice-first banking. “Voice features are primarily going to be made available through various Starling integrations, like Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Siri, and so forth,” Megan Caywood, chief platform officer at Starling Bank, told Bank Innovation previously. “At Starling we’re focused on making banking easier for people going about their daily lives, and this integration provides users with ease and convenience when it comes to their money – you don’t have to even pick up your phone to make payments with this integration.”

Don’t you love it when an innovation plan comes together? We do.

Amazon Cash:

This brand-new offering by e-commerce dominator Amazon works less like a mobile wallet, and more like a gift card–one that moves the process of loading said gift card all to mobile.

To load money onto Amazon Cash, a user will sign up for the offering, choose an amount, and then receive a barcode via SMS. The customer will then go to one of the participating retailers and show the barcode to the cashier, who will then use it to add cash to the user’s Amazon account balance.

Amazon may have only launched this service earlier in the month, but it’s already established a decent cache of participating stores and merchants, including CVS pharmacy and Speedway. It’s an interesting move that could signal wider ambitions for the-ecommerce giant, because Amazon has gotten along fine for nearly 20 years without touching cash.

Page 1 | Page 3