Beginning August 1, Wells Fargo’s service will allow its customers to send funds in real-time at no cost to any customer of a bank that participates in the real-time service, which operates on Early Warning’s clearXchange network.

Wells Fargo customers can already receive real-time payments at no cost from customers at any bank participating in the network.

Wells Fargo virtual channels head of digital Brett Pitts said: "At Wells Fargo, we’re always looking for new ways to make our customers’ lives easier, and one thing we’ve been hearing is that they’d like to be able to quickly send money to their friends, family and other people who bank with other financial institutions.

"We’re very excited to announce that Wells Fargo customers will soon have access to real-time P2P payments through our mobile app, which will allow them to securely send and receive money with tens of millions of banking customers across the country, at any time, with immediate funds availability."

Customers will be able to access real-time P2P payments first through Wells Fargo’s mobile and tablet apps.

Using the email address or phone number of the payment recipient, they will initiate a P2P payment, which will generate and send a payment notification to the recipient telling them their funds are available to spend, withdraw, transfer or save.

Account information is not shared between the sender and receiver, and all information is transmitted securely.