Payroll payments

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.

The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic could lead to the ongoing expansion of workers’ access to early, or earned wages (EWA) through advances and instant payouts, including to new types of users.

As the coronavirus crisis fuels even stronger demands for early earned wage access, Ceridian seeks to rise above the competition with its own on-demand digital wallet and prepaid Mastercard.

The sharing economy faces its first true crisis, but the payment companies that enable nontraditional payrolls say that the best way to fuel the recovery is to simply be more creative in how people get paid.

While the $2 trillion stimulus package just signed into law provides enhanced unemployment benefits, it is little solace to those out of work with dim prospects of their jobs returning to normal anytime soon.

Companies that give employees early access to earned pay don't want to be lumped in with payday lenders, so they are putting a new spin on their pitch: It's a tool to lure and retain valuable workers.

The bank was one of the first users of The Clearing House's RTP network. Andrew Haskell explains how faster payments are helping the bank and its clients.

Payroll advance provider Branch has partnered with Mastercard and Evolve Bank & Trust to offer a debit card that allows hourly workers to instantly access a portion of their earned wages ahead of their periodic paycheck.

Online and cloud-hosted B2B services are on the rise, breaking apart traditional payroll and exposing pain points for technology developers to address.

A proposal to define wages-on-demand would protect consumers and serve as an example for others.

A proposal to define wages-on-demand would protect consumers and serve as an example for others.