Dive Brief:
- Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank said Tuesday that its debit and credit card holders now have access to the Paze digital wallet developed by bank-owned Early Warning Services. U.S. Bank is the first bank to publicize a rollout of Paze, according to EWS spokesperson Richard Pesce.
- Additional banks partnering with EWS on Paze include Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Capital One, among others. "There are similar announcements to the U.S. Bank news coming soon," Pesce said.
- The move was paired with a national marketing campaign for Paze that kicked off Tuesday featuring TV ads and online spots, Pesce said.
Dive Insight:
Tuesday was the first day U.S. Bank customers could use the Paze services through their debit cards, a bank spokesperson said in an email.
“Making an online purchase without entering card data and trusting that the payment will process quickly is what clients expect, and what is delivered with Paze,” the bank said in a Tuesday press release announcing the start of the service.
Scottsdale, Arizona-based Early Warning Services’ nationwide Paze marketing campaign will show up this weekend on widely viewed programs, such as the Emmy Awards broadcast and college football games, Pesce said. It will also include YouTube spots for movie trailers “over the coming weeks,” for films like “Moana 2,” “Wicked” and “Homestead,” he added.
The move is part of a push by Early Warning Services to expand access to Paze, Pesce said. EWS, which is owned by some of the largest U.S. banks, also operates the digital payment system Zelle.
Paze has been in the works since at least early last year and EWS began rolling the service out to merchants in some states in May. "Millions of cards have been provisioned," Pesce said by email.
Digital wallets store any number of payment options, including credit and debit cards. A wallet is generally accessible through a smartphone app, or other mobile device.
The digital wallet is an increasingly popular option in the U.S. A Federal Reserve financial services unit survey of more than 2,000 businesses released in May found that 62% used digital wallets in 2023, compared with 47% in 2022.
The bank owners of EWS are creating the digital wallet as competition in the digital wallet arena rises, with consumers in some parts of the world moving toward them even more quickly than in the U.S.
Paze has some high-profile competitors in Google Wallet and Apple Wallet.
Rather than use the buyer's credit or debit card numbers, a digital wallet creates a unique code for each transaction. For U.S. Bank, Paze will be integrated through the bank’s Elavon gateway for e-commerce transactions.
Roughly 80,000 merchants in the U.S. accept Paze, Early Warning Services Managing Director James Anderson told Payments Dive in May. Those merchants include a handful of big names like Whataburger, ShopRite, Sephora and Party City, according to a merchant directory on the Paze website.
