Zelle to expand peer-to-peer payment service to India this year

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NEW YORK (AP) — Peer-to-peer payment service Zelle will expand to India later this year, the payment service's first international market since the payment service launched nearly a decade ago.

Early Warning Services, the operator of the Zelle network, said it was choosing India as a “natural starting point” for its international expansion. Roughly a third of all remittances that are sent to India each year come from the United States, according to India's central bank.

Early Warning Services expects to expand to other international markets. Along with the India announcement, the company said it will be creating its own U.S. dollar-backed stable coin known as ZelleUSD that will service a backbone for other international markets.

Since launching nine years ago, Zelle has become one of the more popular ways for Americans to send money to others directly from their bank accounts. Consumers and small businesses sent more than $1.2 trillion through Zelle in 2025, according to Early Warning Services.

But Zelle's growth trajectory has not been entirely smooth. The payment network has faced years of scrutiny over fraud and unauthorized transfers, including a lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in December 2024. That lawsuit was dropped with prejudice in March 2025 after the Trump Administration took over the bureau and largely dropped all enforcement actions against any financial companies.

A subsequent lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James with similar allegations is now winding its way through the New York court system.

EWS is jointly owned by seven of the nation's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.