Like every market in the mobile payment space, P2P services, where consumers can send and receive money via their mobile devices, is getting more competitive.

Harland Financial Solutions, a San Antonio, Texas-based software provider to financial institutions, along with its parent company Harland Clarke, today announced the launch of their new P2P payment network called Direct Payment Exchange, or DPXPay. The new service is available to the companies' more than 11,000 financial institution clients.

According to the announcement, DPXPay is similar to services like the clearXchange service offered by several major U.S. banks, or Fiserv's Zashpay, and enables FIs to give account holders the ability to send and request electronic payments to and from another person using only an e-mail address or mobile phone number. The DPXPay service will also let consumers make account to account (A2A) transfers between accounts they hold at different institutions.

The announcement said the new DPXPay service will satisfy consumer requests for easier and more secure methods to send and receive funds as well as generate transaction-based revenue for participating institutions.

"The Direct Payment Exchange delivers the features and benefits both financial institutions and account holders are seeking for executing secure P2P payments," said Harland Financial Solutions president Raju Shivdasani.

The companies said that approximately 3,000 FIs have already enrolled in the DPXPay service. A charter member program is being offered to FIs as a part of the launch to help them market and support the program.

"With this service offering, financial institutions will reinforce to consumers their commitment to remaining on the forefront of technology, supporting customer acquisition and retention, while providing opportunities for improving performance," said Dan Singleton, Harland Clarke's president.

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