Artificial Intillegence » Zelle Payment for evergreen

Zelle is originally a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment service, owned by multiple U.S. banks, designed to let people send/receive money quickly via banks.
Zelle published a “Deep Dive Data Drop” in April 2025 that gives insight into small business usage:

Nearly seven million small businesses are enrolled with Zelle.The use of Zelle by small businesses has tripled in the past three years.Security and fraud concerns are substantial: social engineering, phishing, account takeovers, etc. Several reports/articles highlight these risks.

-> What is not clearly documented / gaps
There is no publicly documented (or widely used) public API from Zelle for third-party integration by businesses (outside of banks). I found forums/reddit discussion stating that Zelle only provides services via banks, not a “merchant API” one could plug into.
Reddit
There are few academic papers specifically about API usage of Zelle by small business sellers. Most are articles, white papers, comparison studies, or reports.

-> Key Research Papers / Reports / Articles

Here are some relevant academic / industry-research / white papers you might want to read:

Title                                                                                                               | What it Covers / Relevance

[1]: https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/icfied-24/125999602?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Comparative Analysis of the Development of China’s Payment By Phone Number and Zelle in the United States | Atlantis Press"
[2]: https://hstalks.com/article/9610/bank-led-innovation-the-expansion-of-the-zelle-net/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Bank-led innovation: The expansion of the Zelle network in the US — key drivers, market impact and future outlook | HSTalks"
[3]: https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2018/03/new-aba-white-paper-provides-info-answers-questions-on-payment-app-zelle/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "New ABA White Paper Provides Info, Answers Questions on Payment App Zelle | ABA Banking Journal"
[4]: https://www.scworld.com/analysis/behavioral-biometrics-reduce-fraud-losses-for-oft-targeted-zelle-payments?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Behavioral biometrics reduce fraud losses for oft-targeted Zelle payments | SC Media"

Possible Research Directions / Questions
If you're researching or considering implementing something that uses Zelle (or similar), these research questions could be interesting:
Feasibility of a Business Merchant API

What technical and regulatory barriers exist for Zelle offering APIs to small business merchants (e.g. for ecommerce or integrating with invoicing systems)?

Case studies: are there banks that do this already internally?

Security & Fraud Risk Analysis
What are the patterns of fraud for small business users? How do they differ from those for consumer P2P users?
What mitigations (e.g., behavioral biometrics, anomaly detection) work best in practice?

User Experience and Trust
How small businesses view risks and benefits of using systems like Zelle vs credit cards / other P2P or merchant platforms.
Impact of instant (or near-instant) finality of transfers (irreversibility) on dispute resolution, refund policies for sellers.

Policy and Regulatory Considerations
Financial regulations, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for businesses using services like Zelle.
How transparency and liability are managed: which party — bank, Zelle, merchant — bears risk if fraud happens.

Comparative Cryptoeconomic/Blockchain Alternatives
Some papers discuss systems like SecurePay (from recent research) which combine CBDC/blockchain for secure payment. Perhaps relevant as a contrast to centralized P2P systems like Zelle.