U.S. Bank has partnered with financial wellness platform Payactiv to offer a new solution that gives clients better earned wage access (EWA), the companies announced Wednesday (Feb. 16).
Employees of companies using the prepaid U.S. Bank Focus Card for payroll will now be able to access some of their wages early, which will come in the form of a direct deposit to the card.
The card also includes other payment options, including an instant deposit into an employee’s checking account through Real-Time Payments (RTP), and will provide offerings like savings and bill management tools.
“The future of payments is one where companies may soon say goodbye to the traditional, biweekly payroll,” said Shailesh Kotwal, vice chair, U.S. Bank Payment Services. “Employers recognize that providing employees on-demand access to earned wages improves employee satisfaction and recruiting efforts.
“We’re proud to be on the leading edge, developing a solution that helps our business clients provide additional convenient options for their employee payroll.”
According to the release, many employees want to work at places where they can access their wages on-demand through things like early wage deposit programs. Payactiv CEO Safwan Shah said the EWA model is intended to “free the American worker from the two-week pay cycle.”
Shah said the company provides “timely access to liquidity — so a single mother can pay for daycare between paychecks and a healthcare worker can cover an unexpected car expense.”
Related: U.S. Bank On Property Managers’ Push To Adopt Digital Payments
David Nielson, senior vice president and head of commercial treasury with U.S. Bank, recently said the pandemic had caused a rise in companies needing to digitize, with property managers or owners reexamining their payment processes and friction with manual methods for such things.
“There’s been a lot of progress in the commercial real estate industry over the last few years as more companies realized how much time and money can be saved by moving to digital payments,” Nielson said in a recent PYMNTS interview.