International payment provider VocaLink announced a new "multi-channel gateway product" today. VocaLink said the new product lets financial institutions offer customers "real-time, interbank mobile payment services," meaning customers of different banks would be able to send and receive funds immediately using only email addresses or mobile phone numbers. 

VocaLink said their gateway even works with other U.K. payment networks such as the LINK ATM network.

VocaLink said that central to its multi-channel gateway is a proxy database that has a look-up capability to associate data such as a mobile phone number or email address matched to customer bank account details. The proxy database ensures that the highest level of safety and security are adhered to, the company said, protecting the privacy of the bank and customers.

"The VocaLink multichannel gateway provides the final piece of the jigsaw that allows customers to initiate real time mobile payments just by supplying the beneficiary's mobile phone number," said Marc Terry, managing director of global transaction services at VocaLink.

The service sounds similar to the clearXchange peer-to-peer network introduced earlier this year in the U.S. by Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The clearXchange product uses proxy data like an email address or mobile phone number to identify account and routing information so that members of the network can transfer funds between each other.

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