PayActiv Deploys Fiserv Tech To Move Employee Wages

PayActiv is collaborating with Fiserv to streamline workers’ access to their wages, the companies said this week.

In an announcement this week, Fiserv said its collaboration with employee financial wellness solution provider PayActiv will enable the latter to more efficiently connect its employee users to their earned wages. PayActiv’s existing offering includes enabling professionals to access up to half of their earned paycheck before payday in an effort to alleviate cash flow stress without using payday loans.

Fiserv will link PayActiv to its Digital Disbursements technology, enabling users to move money in real time across their U.S. bank accounts or card accounts via direct push payments. The collaboration means employees can see funds land in those new accounts in near real time, rather than in a few days.

In a statement, Fiserv President of Electronic Payments Tom Allanson said the influx of gig workers has introduced challenges in how professionals access their earned wages.

“With the rise of the gig economy and new ways of working, people increasingly expect to be able to access their pay right away,” he said. “PayActiv is enabling employers to meet that expectation.”

“Many people live paycheck to paycheck, and any sort of urgent or unexpected financial need can cause them significant stress that detracts from their daily lives,” said PayActiv CEO Safwan Shah in another statement. “PayActiv can eliminate that stress by giving people a convenient way to access the money they have already earned.”

According to the companies, by connecting employees to earned wages, professionals can strengthen their financial wellness while their employers benefit from more satisfied staff members.

The PYMNTS May Faster Payments Tracker pointed to this trend of businesses enabling professionals to access wages before payday. That focus led Bellco Credit Union to deploy PayActiv’s solution for its own employees, and according to the credit union’s HR Payroll Administrator Theresa Sanders, “employees struggle [to get] from paycheck to paycheck no matter who they are.”