The Q2 earnings season has just kicked off and its already helping shedding light on recent developments in the peer-to-peer P2P world most notably the shape of the ongoing competition between Zelle and Venmo The good news about Zelle came earlier this week when Bank of America BoA released its second-quarter financials User data from the financial institution FI showed 142 percent year-over-year growth in Zelle P2P transactions to 351 million with a total principle amount of more than 10 billion which itself was a 100 percent year-over-year increase We believe we account for about 25 percent of Zelle and this activity will continue to grow as the industry continues to drive this as our standard for P2P payments said BoA CEO Brian Moynihan during a post-earnings conference call Monday July 16 with investors In 2017 the bank represents a third of all Zelle transactions That Q1 growth rate represents an acceleration from the first quarters year-over-year growth rate of 131 percent and helps to demonstrate that Zelle has started to scale Last year Zelle reported 75 billion of volume growing at 36 percent versus Venmos 346 billion growing at 94 percent Bank of America said adding that the P2P service would be at an inflection point and could pose a threat to Venmo Will Zelle Pass Venmo Venmo owned by PayPal will fall behind Zelle this year according to a recent eMarketer projection The firm said that Zelle will reach 274 million users in the US more than Venmos 229 million users One of the main hurdles new apps face is building trust and a sizable audience said eMarketer Forecasting Analyst Cindy Liu But Zelle has leapfrogged the early stages of adoption by having the benefit of being embedded into the already existing apps of participating banks Overall eMarketer says that users of P2P mobile payment products will rise 30 percent in 2018 to encompass 825 million people or just about 40 percent of smartphone users in the US Zelle may have that bank advantage but skepticism exists about that with some studies indicating that only about 20 percent of consumers use those bank-affiliated mobile apps In addition observers consider Venmo to have the better-known brand name and a loyal base of consumers and fans PayPal has yet to release its Q2 financials for Venmo In the first quarter however the results of which PayPal announced in late April Venmos total payments volume increased 80 percent year over year to 12 billion All in all P2P payments volume was up 50 percent year on year to 30 billion comprising 23 percent of PayPals total transaction volume processes Venmo Problems Venmo though might be facing new challenges First a report in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month described how consumers who make faulty payments can have a tough time getting reimbursed Then on Tuesday July 17 the UK-based newspaper The Guardian reported that because the P2P has no default privacy protections anyone can track a Venmo users purchase history and glean a detailed profile including their drug deals eating habits and arguments The story quoted Christine Bannan of the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center EPIC saying Venmo is an unusual app because it combines social media with financial transactions One of those is usually fairly public and one is usually very private so its hard to gauge consumer expectations of privacy For its part Venmo said the company is always focused on the privacy and safety of its users P2P Expansion No matter what happens with such concerns both Zelle and Venmo are looking for future areas of expansion and new ways to acquire customers Zelle recently found a spot with helping the quicker distribution of insurance checks and other corporate disbursements a move that could encourage even more use of the P2P service and a process described in detail during a PYMNTS interview with Drew Edwards CEO of instant money network Ingo Money and Lou Anne Alexander group payments president of the bank-owned Early Warning which itself owns the digital P2P payments network Zelle Venmo meanwhile recently announced that is getting into payment cards specifically a Mastercard -branded debit card The aim according to the company is to enable consumers who use Venmo to spend their balances in more places Consumers can keep track of Venmo purchases via their general Venmo transaction history so you can split with Venmo friends or share what you bought on the feed the company said For those with Venmo notifications enabled youll be notified on your phone with each swipe The ongoing earnings season will bring more news about P2P payments and how the competition between Zelle and Venmo is playing out The race is far from over especially as more consumers warm up to the idea of these types of transactions