Bank-owned wallet Paze sets out to sign the 100 largest US merchants after its relaunch

Early Warning Services, the company owned by seven large US banks that also runs Zelle, told Payments Dive in a report published on 22 October 2026 that it wants Paze to win over the biggest US merchants over the next three years, starting with the 100 largest. It did not say how many of those have signed so far. Paze is a checkout wallet that holds cards from participating banks and credit unions. Its first version struggled with low conversion, too many screens and weak approval rates, so the team restarted the design in May 2025 and relaunched the wallet on 15 June 2026, after the banks ran a six-week push on approvals and worked with Visa and Mastercard. A summer promotion gave users a credit at selected merchants until 11 September. Paze says the promotion added a few points of wallet share at participating merchants within three to six weeks, and that it is on course to beat its 2026 transaction goal fourfold. About 220 million credit and debit cards have been added to Paze. Merchants named as accepting it include Bloomingdale's, Sephora, Dunkin' and United Airlines. Paze tokenises card details, so merchants do not receive the full card number. For online merchants in the US, Paze is positioning itself as a bank-backed alternative to Apple Pay and PayPal, aimed at shoppers who are not tied to one ecosystem and trust their bank. A large push into top merchants means more sales calls and possibly incentives, and it adds another wallet button that checkout teams will have to weigh against conversion and page clutter.