Bank of America's person-to-person use of mobile payment network Zelle surged this year. The uptick in usage was driven mainly by millennials and Gen Z in a shift away from cash.  

"Thousands of Bank of America clients are adopting Zelle each week and we are on track to surpass 9 million active users by the end of the year," David Tyrie, head of advanced solutions and digital banking at Bank of America, said in a news release.

Zelle — which competes head-to-head with Venmo — links to a user's bank account and allows customers to send money to other people instantly using an email address or a phone number. The service is pre-built into participating banking apps, such as Bank of America, Chase Bank, Citi and Wells Fargo.  

In less than nine months, Bank of America clients sent and received a total of 163 million person-to-person Zelle transactions, compared to 157 million transactions throughout 2018. The bank now has nearly 8.4 million clients actively using the platform, the bank said.  
 
In the second quarter of 2019, Bank of America clients sent and received 69 million Zelle transactions — totaling $18 billion in money moved — almost doubling the number of transactions from the same quarter in 2018.
 
Additional highlights reported by the bank include: 

• Adoption of Zelle increased across all generations of Bank of America clients, including 68% of millennials and Gen Z; 20% of Gen X; and 12% of baby boomers and seniors. 
• Bank of America clients used Zelle most often for paying rent, splitting utilities, family care and gifting.
• Since offering Zelle to eligible Bank of America small business clients in June of this year, 180,000 small business owners have used their small business accounts to send money using Zelle.