- Key insights: Earned wage access providers such as DailyPay and Branch are looking toward wider distribution networks as banks get into the market.
- What's at stake: Short-term liquidity products such as earned wage access are becoming more popular with consumers and gaining the attention of banks and credit unions.
- Forward look: Embedded finance plays and a greater focus on top-of-funnel sales channels are just a couple of strategies to get earned wage access into the hands of more people.
Banks, credit unions and fintechs are warming up to short-term liquidity products such as earned wage access. At the same time, legacy EWA providers are making moves to widen their distribution networks to protect their competitive advantage.
Earlier this month, AltaOne Federal Credit Union became one of the latest financial institutions to roll out its own version of on-demand pay in the hopes that it will help reduce deposit flight and lower its customer's reliance on high-interest borrowing.
"We are always looking for innovative ways to strengthen the financial well-being of our members," AltaOne CEO Stephanie Sievers said in a statement. "Too often, financial stress is not about whether someone is responsible; it is about whether the timing of their income matches the timing of their obligations."
AltaOne worked with and invested in the fintech Veep to develop the EWA product.
It's the latest sign that earned wage access and other on-demand pay and short-term liquidity products are here for the long haul, and comes as other earned wage access fintechs such as Branch and DailyPay look to bolster their own distribution networks in their next phase of growth.
Workforce payments fintech Branch, for example, is hoping to make it easier for businesses to offer its finance product without the lengthy integration timelines. As part of that effort, the company launched Flex, an expanded EWA model to allow businesses to embed Branch's on-demand pay into their existing applications.
"Our thesis is that if we live where workers are already at, they have access to their wages in a more seamless way," Branch founder and CEO Atif Siddiqi told American Banker.
Branch also rolled out a funds delivery service that sends the earned wages directly to a debit card, eliminating the need for new account creation.
"We really look at ourselves as a core financial infrastructure for the workforce," Siddiqi said. "This is just another example of how we're extending what we've built to date into other applications."
Embedding its EWA product also allows the fintech to sell other financial products like a digital wallet to workers, too.
Employer-integrated EWA provider DailyPay is also looking to sign on more employers and increase its profile in its next phase of growth following Nelson Chai's appointment as CEO in October 2025. DailyPay has partnerships with
"We're really focused on continuing to build our top of the funnel; We are a B-to-B-to-C business, so that means continuing to build our client relationships with employers," Chai told American Banker.
DailyPay is also looking to increase its public profile with both businesses and consumers with stronger marketing pushes. In May, the company invested heavily in advertising at the Payroll Congress Conference and Expo in Nashville, Tennessee.
"We basically took over the city," Chai said.
DailyPay in New York City last month also ran a two-day pop-up diner to drum up attention with consumers, where it recreated an old-school diner experience with 1930s prices.
"We're elevating our brand and trying to both not only continue to reinforce with employers, employees, but also key decision makers," Chai said.
