American Express has launched a new app "Serve", which customers can use to send and receive money, pay bills, or make digital purchases with a desktop, mobile phone or a Facebook account.
Users can also create and manage sub-accounts for friends and family members by using the new app.
American Express said the app gives consumers a new way to spend and that the service has been kept flexible to evolve depending on the feedback of users.
American Express enterprise growth group vice-president Dan Schulman said Serve is a new type of payment platform that isn’t tied to a single card or mobile operating system.
"We intend to quickly evolve the Serve platform by adding new features and functionality as we learn from consumer and merchant experiences," Schulman said.
Schulman also said that though the near-field communication (NFC) technology will make such a service possible for mobile phones, it would take years.
Schulman said, "I believe NFC or another standard is going to happen eventually, whether it takes one, three, five years. But consumers like you and I want to be able to get cash out of our accounts using our mobile phones today!"
"Because Amex is a merchant acquirer with millions of partnerships, we can do this immediately."
At present, the online financial transactions app works with Apple’s iOS and Android operating systems.
Recently, Visa announced a similar personal payment capability in the US.
