Plaid Teams With Pinwheel for Direct Deposit Services

Plaid says it has added income and employment data platform Pinwheel to its partner network.

The partnership, announced Thursday (Aug. 17), will see Pinwheel provide complementary payroll data services for Plaid’s Income offering, while providing Plaid users with direct deposit switching (DDS) services. 

“The most important part of a person’s financial life is their income,” the companies said in a news release. “Whether a consumer earns a biweekly salary, irregular gig-work payments, unemployment benefits, or any type of income in between, they need to seamlessly connect their income accounts to their financial apps.”

According to the release, Pinwheel connects to more than 1,700 platforms, covering 80% of U.S. workers and 1.5 million-plus employers, and is the only payroll API that covers 100% of consumers paid using direct deposit. 

As covered here last month, Pinwheel’s Deposit Switch lets users update their deposit settings to receive direct deposits, whether they’re full-time employees, gig workers, or Social Security or unemployment benefit recipients.

“The promise of digital finance means unlocking financial freedom and making it easy for consumers to access better financial services and, ultimately, better financial outcomes,” Tamara Romanek, head of partnerships of Plaid, said in the release.

Brian Karimi-Pashaki, Pinwheel’s partnerships lead, added that Plaid’s partnership will help drive better underwriting for mortgages, auto and personal loans. 

“Income is arguably the most important part of someone’s financial picture, and we’re just scratching the surface of how unlocking this missing data can create more positive outcomes for consumers and financial institutions alike,” he said.

PYMNTS’ reporting has shown consumers increasingly want faster access to their pay, with 75% of gig workers saying they want to be paid more than twice a month.

“Satisfied workers are essential to corporate success and under no circumstances deserve to have their pay be delayed or inaccurate,” PYMNTS wrote last month. “Businesses will have to ensure their payroll processes are up to snuff, or they barely deserve to be in business in the first place. Real-time solutions are critical to accomplishing these objectives.”

Faster payments are key considerations for both businesses and consumers, with a respective 83% and 75% using some form of real-time transactions. Studies have shown that 45% of businesses expect instant payroll to reduce their costs, while 74% said getting automated payment-related information using this method is at least somewhat important.