Wells Fargo & Company announced its new Send & Receive Money service. The service is intended to simplify person-to-person fund transfers by Wells Fargo depositors to other bank customers or customers of Bank of America. Send & Receive Money makes payments possible via either online or mobile banking using just an email address or mobile phone number.

The new service is the first to be built on the clearXchange platform. With the service, customers don't need to know account numbers. Instead, an email address or mobile phone number is linked to an account, meaning that's all a customer needs to know in order to send or receive funds. Transfers take a day for Wells Fargo customers and up to three days for B-of-A accountholders. There's no cost for the service.

"Customers want options and convenience," said Brett Pitts, SVP at Wells Fargo's Internet services group. "With Send & Receive Money customers can send payments electronically to others without having to know their sensitive financial information, such as bank account numbers. As mobile money transfer becomes more common, remembering multiple account numbers will be harder. Send & Receive Money allows customers to pay another person using information they typically either know or have programmed on their phone."

The bank said its Send & Receive Money service will be expanded to include other customers at banks besides Bank of America. ClearXchange was launched last year by Wells Fargo, B-of-A and Chase to facilitate interbank fund transfers.

"This is a great step in the vision we have for clearXchange," said Mike Kennedy, executive vice president and head of innovation and payments strategy at Wells Fargo, and board chairman of clearXchange. "The ability to easily move money between family and friends across financial institutions is something asked for by our customers. We are happy to now provide the service."

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