Zelle announced plans to expand its $1 trillion US payments network internationally using stablecoins. The plan promises to make international money transfers faster and cheaper.
Questions are being raised about the content of the initiative and whether it represents another failed attempt by a banking consortium to adopt blockchain technology.
Zelle goes beyond US borders
Zelle, one of the most used payment networks in the United States, is going global.
Early Alert Services (EWS), Zelle’s banking operator, today announced a new initiative that aims to extend its trillion-dollar payments system beyond US borders by leveraging stablecoins.
The plan promises to make international money transfers faster, more reliable and less expensive by leveraging blockchain-based stablecoin technology.
“Zelle transformed the way Americans send money home. Now, we’re starting to work to bring that same level of speed and reliability to Zelle consumers sending money to and from the United States, based on what we’ve learned from the market, our users and our network of banks and credit unions,” EWS CEO Cameron Fowler said in a press release.
The move represents Zelle’s most ambitious step since its national launch in 2017. As consumers increasingly demand cheaper and more efficient ways to send money abroad, traditional banks are under pressure to compete.
Still, with backing from major U.S. banks like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, EWS operates on a scale that few fintech companies can match.
However, while the announcement generated excitement among institutional stakeholders, it left many critical questions unanswered.
The Zelle Scale Can Test Old Limits
Today’s announcement from EWS was missing several key details. Fowler did not reveal whether the consortium plans to create a unified stablecoin or allow individual member banks to issue their own.
He also did not clarify which foreign banking partners would be involved in the international launch, a crucial detail in assessing how far Zelle’s global ambitions could go.
The project’s release date also remains unknown, although the company offered that more announcements would be coming soon.
Skeptics were quick to argue that the expansion of the Zelle stablecoin risks following a familiar pattern of institutional signaling about the substance. The complexity of coordinating thousands of financial institutions, each with their own risk and compliance frameworks, often leads to delays, fragmentation or outright abandonment.
Simon Taylor, a fintech analyst who discussed the topic on
Fnality was a project launched by a banking consortium in 2019 that sought to modernize cross-border settlements using tokenized versions of major fiat currencies such as the dollar, euro and pound.
“Fnality (utility settlement currency) was announced by 14 major banks in 2019. Not yet available at scale. Getting 2,300 institutions to agree on blockchain strategy? Brutal,” Taylor wrote.
Still, Zelle occupies a unique position compared to previous failed experiments. Its $1 trillion payments volume gives EWS a crucial advantage: distribution.
The obstacle to the success of this experiment lies in whether Zelle can make the technology work effectively. If EWS can deliver a stablecoin system that truly improves cross-border payments, Zelle could help further integrate stablecoin adoption into legacy financial institutions.
The post Zelle Expands Abroad with Stablecoins, but Details Remain Elusive appeared first on BeInCrypto.
