Are you really serious this time?

Several major American banks want to offer their own product that makes it easy to pay on the Internet - a so-called wallet.

This puts these financial institutions in direct competition with Apple Pay, but also with PayPal, Samsung Pay and Google Pay.

Banks daring to attack the internet giants include Bank of America, Truist, Capital One, JP Morgan Chase, PNC Bank, US Bank and Wells Fargo.

At least that's what the Wall Street Journal reports.

Franz Nestler

Editor in Business.

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The new bank wallet will then work with Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards.

There are a number of requirements for customers: they must not have any overdue debts, they must have already used the card online, and they must have an e-mail address and a telephone number.

Oliver Geiseler, Senior Partner at Capco in banking consulting, is skeptical about the attempt: "It seems questionable whether the banks can keep up with their competitors in terms of digital competence and user experience."

The whole thing is to be operated by Early Warning Services (EWS).

This is a joint venture of the seven banks mentioned, which already operates a payment service, but which is intended more for money transfers between customers.

EWS now expects around 150 million customers to sign up for the new, as yet unnamed, service.

Bernd Richter, digital specialist at FIS, sees the winners less with the banks than with the credit card providers, as he explained to the FAZ: "It seems as if Visa and Mastercard would be the big winners of the development.

The wallet providers remain dependent on network operators, but could also position the bank account opposite the card in the wallet,” says the expert.

In Europe, a similar project is being worked on with the European Payments Initiative (EPI).

However, Richter is rather skeptical about this: "The efforts have recently stalled and do not seem promising," says Richter.