Zelle and Alacriti show why P2P isn’t just a feature for credit unions—it’s core to AI-powered, member-centric banking and deeper member relationships.
Most credit unions already know this number, even if they don’t quote it out loud: nearly 80% of consumers say instant payments are the most important feature their financial institution can offer. That single expectation is quietly rewiring what “member-centric banking” means.
The problem is, members aren’t waiting for their credit union to catch up. They’re already using Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, and whatever their friends tap first on their phones. Every payment that happens off your rails is one more data point, one more relationship touch, drifting away from your credit union.
Here’s the thing about peer-to-peer (P2P) payments: this isn’t just a feature war. It’s a trust and data war. And the winners are the institutions that stop treating providers as vendors and start treating them as strategic partners—especially when AI, fraud, and member experience all collide.
This post builds on the recent conversation with Alacriti’s Mark Majeske and Zelle’s Matt Kinne to look at what “partnership over vendorship” really means for credit unions, and how it ties directly into AI-powered, member-centric banking.
Why P2P Is Now Core to Member-Centric Banking
P2P payments are no longer an optional add-on. For member-centric credit unions, P2P is now core infrastructure, just like checking, debit, and bill pay.
Here’s why:
- Members expect instant – When 80% of consumers rank instant payments as the top feature, P2P speeds shape their perception of your entire digital experience.
- P2P data is behavioral gold – Every transaction reveals relationships, spending patterns, and financial stress signals you can feed into AI models for better member service.
- Trust is your advantage – Members already trust your credit union more than a random app. You just need to meet them where they are—on their phones, in real time.
In the AI for Credit Unions series, we’ve been talking about fraud detection, smarter underwriting, and member service automation. All of those get better when you have rich, real-time payment data inside your ecosystem instead of scattered across third-party apps.
P2P isn’t just about sending money fast. It’s about owning the experience and the data so your AI, your risk controls, and your member relationships get stronger instead of weaker.
The Real Risk: Letting External Apps Own Your Members
Most credit unions face the same P2P challenge: members default to Venmo or another fintech instead of using the credit union’s app. It feels like a minor UX problem. It isn’t.
When P2P moves off your rails:
- You lose transaction visibility that feeds your fraud and AML models.
- You lose context about who members pay, how often, and for what.
- You lose engagement, because members don’t associate the P2P experience with your brand.
That’s why Zelle’s directory-based model matters. Instead of maintaining a little island of P2P usage, your credit union connects to a network where members can send and receive using an email or mobile number, from right inside your own digital experience.
The network effect is the feature. The member gets Zelle’s reach and familiarity, and you keep the relationship, the trust, and the data.
From an AI and analytics standpoint, bringing P2P traffic back into your own environment lets you:
- Improve fraud detection models with richer real-time signals.
- Spot early warning signs of financial stress (overuse of P2P for essentials, unusual borrowing between friends).
- Identify life events (moving, new roommates, new jobs, childcare payments) that can trigger proactive, personalized outreach.
That’s member-centric banking powered by AI—but it only works if the data is yours to work with.
Partnership Over Vendorship: What Credit Unions Actually Need
Most vendors will happily sell you a P2P feature and walk away once it’s live. A partner doesn’t stop at go-live; they stay in the weeds with you on adoption, risk, and ongoing optimization.
Mark Majeske put it bluntly:
“Work with a partner instead of just a vendor. Your success is our success.”
Here’s what partnership over vendorship looks like in practice when you’re deploying Zelle with a platform partner like Alacriti.
1. Integration That Doesn’t Break Your Team
Zelle integration can be complex: core systems, digital banking platforms, fraud engines, limits, compliance…none of that is plug-and-play in the real world.
A true partner will:
- Own the integration complexity so your internal teams aren’t swamped.
- Coordinate with your digital banking and core providers instead of forcing you to be the go-between.
- Offer pre-built connectors and APIs tuned for credit union environments.
The payoff is a shorter time to market and less “integration fatigue” for your IT and ops teams.
2. Shared Risk Management and AI-Ready Controls
Faster payments change your fraud profile overnight. You don’t have time for manual reviews on every suspicious P2P transfer.
A partner mindset means:
- Co-designing fraud rules, limits, and step-up authentication specific to your membership base.
- Feeding P2P data into your existing AI fraud engines (or helping you stand them up if you’re early in that journey).
- Continuously tuning models as fraud patterns evolve, instead of treating risk as a one-time configuration.
In plain terms: you’re not left alone when first-loss dollars start to sting.
3. Adoption, Education, and Member Experience
Launching Zelle isn’t just a technical deployment. It’s a behavior change project.
Partners help you:
- Design in-app journeys where Zelle shows up at the right moments.
- Train front-line staff and contact center teams so they can explain Zelle confidently.
- Build member education campaigns about safety, scams, and correct usage.
When those pieces fit together, members actually use the product—and use yours instead of going back to external apps.
How Zelle + Alacriti Support an AI-Driven Strategy
If you’re thinking, “This sounds like payments, not AI,” here’s where it clicks: P2P is one of the highest-signal data sources you can feed into AI for a credit union.
Pairing Zelle with a payments partner like Alacriti gives you both the rail and the data structure you need for AI-powered, member-centric banking.
Better Fraud Detection and Scam Prevention
Fraudsters love instant payments. They exploit urgency, social pressure, and lack of education. AI is your best shot at staying ahead.
With Zelle running through a platform that’s built for analytics, your credit union can:
- Monitor transaction patterns in real time (new payees, unusual amounts, odd times of day).
- Build models that distinguish between member-initiated mistakes (being tricked by a scam) and traditional account takeover.
- Trigger context-aware warnings in your app: “This looks unusual for you. Are you sure you know this recipient?”
Done well, that’s not friction—it’s member protection that reinforces your role as a trusted partner.
Hyper-Relevant Member Service
Once P2P data lives in your environment, it becomes fuel for better member service automation:
- Virtual agents can answer questions like, “Did my payment to Jenna go through?” without sending members to another app.
- Your CRM can surface P2P-based insights to MSRs: frequent payees, recurring payments, or anomalies that might warrant a proactive check-in.
- AI chat and co-pilot tools for staff can pull in P2P history instantly during a member interaction.
Instead of disjointed conversations, you get context-rich service that feels smart and personal.
Financial Wellness and Relationship Deepening
P2P flows reveal everyday realities: who’s splitting rent, who’s paying childcare, who’s transferring money between family members to make ends meet.
Ethically and transparently used, this data can power:
- Personalized financial wellness nudges (“You’re sending rent and utilities separately each month—here’s how a checking bundle or bill-pay template could help.”)
- Identification of members who might benefit from small-dollar credit, budgeting tools, or savings challenges.
- Triggers for life-event outreach—like connecting a member who’s consistently paying a sitter or tutor with relevant savings products or local resources.
That’s what member-centric banking looks like when AI isn’t just a buzzword but a lens for better decisions.
The Small Business Opportunity Hiding Inside Zelle
One of the most interesting stats from the conversation: small businesses now make up about 15% of Zelle’s total transactions. That’s a big signal for community-focused credit unions.
Credit unions often sit at the center of local economies. Zelle usage by small businesses creates a bridge between consumer members and local businesses:
- A member pays their landscaper or tutor via Zelle.
- That small business receives payments directly into their business account at your credit union.
- Those flows become the basis for deeper conversations about treasury needs, credit, and financial tools.
From an AI perspective, this data helps you:
- Understand cash flow cycles for local businesses.
- Identify businesses that may be ready for lines of credit, equipment loans, or merchant services.
- Tailor outreach campaigns that actually reflect how those businesses operate day-to-day.
For a credit union that wants to own the “local business relationship,” ignoring this 15% slice is walking away from a major growth and data opportunity.
How to Get Started: A Practical Roadmap
If your credit union is considering Zelle—or struggling to get traction with an existing P2P offering—here’s a practical way to move forward.
1. Clarify the Strategy, Not Just the Feature
Before you sign anything, answer three questions internally:
- What member problems are we solving with P2P? (Speed, convenience, trust, fraud protection.)
- How will this data feed into our AI and analytics roadmap?
- What’s our risk posture with instant payments—and who owns it?
If you can’t answer those clearly, a strong partner should push you until you can.
2. Choose Partnership Over a Point Solution
When evaluating providers and models, look for:
- Commitment to shared outcomes: adoption, fraud loss reduction, member satisfaction.
- Proven experience integrating with credit union cores and digital banking.
- Support for data access (APIs, event streams, or data feeds) that your AI stack can actually use.
The worst path is “Check the box on Zelle, but keep data and risk in a black box.”
3. Design for Adoption and Education from Day One
Make Zelle a visible, trusted part of your digital experience:
- Place P2P where members already are in your app—transfer flows, account overviews, and bill payment.
- Train front-line teams so they can explain how Zelle works, what it costs, and how to stay safe.
- Build simple fraud education scripts and digital content focused on real scam scenarios you’re seeing.
4. Wire It Into Your AI Roadmap
Finally, make sure your P2P initiative plugs directly into your AI for credit unions strategy:
- Feed P2P data into fraud models, member segmentation, and financial wellness tools.
- Use AI to monitor adoption and transaction patterns, then adjust limits, messaging, and UX.
- Measure what matters: fraud losses, time-to-resolution for P2P disputes, NPS for digital experience, and small business usage.
Once P2P is wired into your core data and AI stack, it stops being “one more feature” and becomes a strategic capability.
The reality? P2P is now a litmus test for how serious a credit union is about member-centric banking in a digital-first world. If members have to leave your app to send money to the people and businesses they care about, someone else is owning that relationship and that data.
Working with partners like Alacriti and Zelle is about more than turning on a logo in your app. It’s about reclaiming payments, feeding your AI strategy with richer data, and showing members that their trusted institution can move just as fast as the fintechs—while caring more about their financial health.
If your credit union is mapping out its AI roadmap for 2026, P2P shouldn’t be an afterthought. It should be one of the foundation stones.