Payroll payments

Michael Moeser, Senior Analyst at PaymentsSource, talks to Atif Siddiqi, founder and CEO of Branch, about the transformation going on with payroll payments.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 saw some businesses become big winners — such as Zoom, Home Depot and payments companies like PayPal — while other businesses suffered heavily, most notably the travel and hospitality industries. Credit card issuers also suffered, as demand lagged heavily for new cards and their overall spending dropped considerably during the year.

While there has been a general trend of paying people faster for work already performed, starting with gig workers, COVID-19 has created (or exposed) many issues that are fueling the shift toward on-demand pay, especially for hourly workers.

My Digital is working with Modulr to deliver automated payroll services for U.K. contract workers.

New York-based earned wage access (EWA) startup Clair has raised $4.5 million in a seed fundraising round to target the small-business market.

In the two months since earned wage access (EWA) provider Immediate launched Visa Direct as a payment option, the near real-time method is already accounting for 50% of its payments.

Payroll deferral doesn’t appear to give meaningful relief to low-income Americans — but payroll flexibility can fill that gap and then some, says DailyPay's Matthew Kopko.

Square is entering the earned wage access (EWA) fray, but it’s taking a tailored approach that aims to drive transaction volume within its Cash App.

COVID-19 has caused a shift in how workers are using the DailyPay earned wage access (EWA) service by withdrawing more money to help out others and pay down debt.

Fintech software provider Rapyd and LytePay, a payments provider for self-employed workers, are partnering to launch a digital business wallet and accompanying Mastercard for real estate agents in Singapore.

As the coronavirus pandemic began, PayActiv waived fees for its earned wage access (EWA) user base. Eventually those fees returned, but they did not deter adoption.

While anyone can lose employment during a pandemic or recession, below a certain threshold it becomes more likely that workers could lose their income — and thus default on credit card payments.

The company said it will use the new funding to accelerate its growth.

John Drechny, the CEO of the Merchant Advisory Group, talks to PaymentsSource Associate Editor David Heun about how merchants are looking beyond the coronavirus crisis — and how every choice merchants make today will have consequences that last well beyond the pandemic.

Now that the U.S. is five months into the COVID crisis a new victim is emerging. Caught between small businesses furloughing their staff landlords needing to collect rent are millions of hourly workers.

The coronavirus pandemic has greatly disrupted many people's cashflow, and made financial management much more stressful. Earned wage access is one way to provide relief to those who still have an income but find themselves financially strained. PaymentsSource senior analyst Michael Moeser talks about earned wage access with Safwan Shah, the founder and CEO of Payactiv, a company that's operated in this space for nearly a decade.

Fueling its market expansion, U.K. earned wage access startup Wagestream has raised £20 million (about $25 million) in a Series B fundraiser from several VC firms.

When PayActiv ended its coronavirus-related fee holiday this month, it didn't just go back to the way things were before; it adopted a modified business model that could bring it new markets and partnerships.

Orka Technology Group has launched a new earned wage access tool called Orka Pay for hourly workers to gain access to their wages between pay periods.

To get an edge in the rapidly expanding earned wage access market, Branch is extending mobile contactless capabilities to its Mastercard debit account by adding Apple Pay and Google Pay to its app.