The news: Early Warning Services’ Zelle network will facilitate remittance payments to India later this year, per a press release. 

Zelle is also developing the ZelleUSD stablecoin to power remittances in other markets.

Why this matters: Zelle wants to disrupt a high volume industry. Remittance outflow from the US will crack $95.91 billion this year, per our forecast. India is the No. 1 destination for remittance inflow, making Zelle’s inaugural worldwide network extension a no brainer.

The move should put providers like Western Union, Moneygram, and Wise on notice. Zelle is widely popular in the US: It  facilitated $1.2 trillion in P2P volume last year, up 20% YoY. 

Zelle’s position within consumers’ banking apps reduces remittance friction, eliminating the need to walk to a storefront, download a separate app and sync banking accounts, or plug in card information to move money to loved ones overseas. 

Zelle’s stablecoin offering could also win over remittance senders by making payments faster, cheaper, and available 24/7. Zelle users can give vital funds to families faster and cheaper with less effort—the key ingredients to encourage defection from long-term providers. 

Zoom out: Zelle’s push into India works well with the highly banked, high-earning US immigrant demographic. Indian American households earn on average $152,341 yearly, per the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. 

However, Zelle’s fully bank-based and digital remittance approach may land poorly with first-generation immigrants with low banking engagement and higher rates of cash-in-hand jobs—nearly 10% of Hispanic households are unbanked, per the FDIC. 

Implications for payment providers: New technologies make remittances easier and cheaper, but that alone won’t reshape longstanding payment behaviors. 

Focusing outreach to remittance senders with highly digital behaviors may be the best allocation of marketing dollars until providers find an easier way to get cash-based remittance senders onto on-chain rails and mobile apps.