12 Charts Tell the Story of Instant Payments

Instant Payroll Could Cut Costly Employee Turnover Workers are becoming increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of traditional payroll systems and outdated pay schedules. In today’s super-fast paced economic environment, where many live paycheck to paycheck, this delay can be especially harmful. The wait is even worse for gig workers, freelancers, and contractors, as payment delays can extend beyond standard cycles, jeopardizing their financial security. When unexpected expenses arise between pay periods, the consequences can be devastating. To address these issues and keep employees happy, employers can provide on-demand payroll options, allowing workers to access their earnings as they accumulate, rather than waiting for a designated payday. This enhanced financial flexibility can improve employees’ well-being, leading to greater loyalty, reduced turnover, and significant savings for businesses by lowering recruitment and training costs. Our latest “Money Mobility Tracker” highlights how instant payroll and earned wage access can boost financial health, improve retention, and foster stronger employer-employee relationships. The Struggle of Delayed Wages — And How Instant Payroll Can Help Waiting for payments is a persistent problem for both employees and contractors. Delayed payments can result in severe financial strain. A recent study of global gig workers, freelancers, and contractors revealed that 58% believe current payment systems are inadequate due to slow processing, high fees, and complications with currency conversions. Additionally, 65% of freelancers reported losing income because they had to turn down cross-border jobs in incompatible currencies. Nearly one-third of respondents waited three to five days to receive payments, and 15% experienced even longer delays. The Growing Demand for Instant Payroll Across the workforce, there is increasing demand for instant payroll options to avoid the financial stress of traditional pay periods. According to a PYMNTS Intelligence study, only 36% of freelancers and consultants are paid through instant methods, but 72% of consumers would prefer instant payments if given the choice. Moreover, 78% of consumers expressed high satisfaction with instant payment options, and 22% indicated they would pay a fee for immediate access to their earnings. This willingness to pay can help offset the costs of adopting real-time payroll systems, sharing the financial burden between employers and employees who opt in. Instant Payments Strengthen Employee Relationships Offering instant payroll to alleviate workers’ financial challenges can enhance the employer-employee relationship, reduce turnover, and cut down on the costs associated with onboarding and training. For example, the trucking industry is projected to face a shortage of 160,000 drivers by 2030. To combat this, some companies have started offering instant payments, and the initiative has proven effective in retaining drivers. A PYMNTS Intelligence study found that 91% of truckers who receive instant payments appreciate the speed and peace of mind it provides. Additionally, 37% of truckers said they would be willing to pay for instant payments, compared to 29% of general consumers. Beyond speed, 75% of truckers cited convenience as a key benefit of instant payments. About the Tracker The “Money Mobility Tracker®,” a collaboration with PYNMNTS Intelligence, explores how companies offering instant payroll and earned wage access can improve financial well-being, boost retention and foster stronger employee relationships.

ALPHARETTA, Ga, Sept. 5, 2024 – Ingo Payments, a trusted leader in account funding and disbursements solutions defined as Money Mobility, announced its acquisition of Deposits Inc., a provider of modern banking software tools and infrastructure. This acquisition accelerates the launch of its Modern Money Stack, which will enable banks, fintechs and brands to transform money flows into full, feature-rich accounts that foster new relationships, revenue streams, and utility, delivered in a modern, modular, compliant and cost-efficient way. In 2023, 85% of new accounts were opened with digital-only banks, and 75% of traditional banks sought capabilities beyond their legacy core systems. Meanwhile, non-financial companies and fintechs are striving to embed financial products into their customer experiences. The surge in demand for embedded financial services, coupled with a challenging regulatory environment, highlights the critical need for modernized banking and payments infrastructure, purpose-built to safely power financial innovation. Founded 23 years ago in partnership with a traditional bank, Ingo operated twelve bank branches serving the underserved Latino population in Atlanta. This history is part of Ingo’s long track record of enabling financial institutions to innovate in financial services, compliance, and risk management. Today, leveraging its Money Mobility platform, the company manages operational compliance and processes billions of dollars in money flows annually for some of the country’s largest enterprises and banks across highly regulated industries, including banking, fintech, lending, insurance, trucking, hospitality, and gaming – all enhanced by its innovative fraud risk, underwriting and guarantee services. With its acquisition of Deposits, Ingo has created a modern, modular, bank-grade, end-to-end platform that connects money in and money out through its Modern Money Stack. This stack includes a processor-agnostic side core and the tools necessary for banks to confidently meet regulatory obligations, reduce third- and fourth-party risk, and offer modern financial services to their customers. Underpinned by a bank-grade ledger, it provides banks with visibility into real-time account balances and provides control over customer onboarding workflows, issued accounts, payments orchestration, velocity and fraud controls, sanctions screening and customer relationship management. For financial services innovators, it reduces operational complexity and cost, and offers no code, low code, API, SDK, SSO and custom SaaS integrations supporting an array of account issuing, money mobility and user experience features. “With Deposits Inc.’s innovative software tools and banking infrastructure now integrated into Ingo’s platform, we are uniquely positioned to offer a vertically integrated solution that combines issuing, compliance, risk, and money mobility capabilities under one roof,” said Joseph Akintolayo, CEO of Deposits Inc. “This partnership is the next logical step in our vision of empowering institutions with the technology they need to not just manage transactions, but to create meaningful, lasting relationships with their customers.” “The future of payments is about turning transactions into relationships that impact overall economics, money flows and customer experiences. The launch of our Modern Money Stack enables banks and enterprises to manage complex, multilayered payment flows and, optionally, turn a payment into an account or wallet–powered by our proprietary money mobility capabilities–that becomes the basis for a relationship and a broader ecosystem, adding value to both the issuer and the account holder,” said Drew Edwards, CEO of Ingo. Ingo Payments’ acquisition of Deposits Inc. closed on August 30, 2024. Waller Helms Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to Deposits, Inc. About Ingo Payments Ingo Payments, an Ingo Money Inc. brand, enables banks, fintechs and brands to build, launch, and scale innovative financial experiences through its bank-grade, compliance-first end-to-end platform, complete with money mobility capabilities built on top of a modern money stack, that provides the foundation for account funding, mobile deposits, payouts, digital wallets, bank account creation, card issuing, PFM, and rewards solutions across a wide range of industries and use cases. By vertically integrating issuing, payment processing, and risk underwriting services, we help clients reduce third-party risk, operational complexity, and cost, while accelerating time to market. Learn more at ingopayments.com. About Deposits Inc. Deposits Inc., founded by Joseph Akintolayo in 2021, is a pioneering fintech company providing modern banking software and infrastructure. With a mission to democratize access to modern financial services, Deposits Inc. offers a suite of modular, API-driven solutions that enables banks and organizations of all sizes to rapidly build and deploy customized financial products and deliver exceptional financial experiences through its flexible, scalable technology platform. For more information, visit deposits.inc.

There’s moving money and then there’s money mobility. One represents the current state of how money moves in and out of accounts. The latter is the cornerstone of today’s announcement that money mobility platform Ingo Payments has acquired cloud-based banking platform Deposits Inc. By integrating Deposits, Ingo Payments is enhancing its platform into a cutting-edge, bank-grade system. This integration introduces a proprietary ‘money stack’—a suite of features that seamlessly connects ‘money in’ and ‘money out’ processes. With these new plug-and-play tools, both banks and non-bank issuers can effortlessly transform payments into dynamic, feature-rich accounts, unlocking new opportunities for customer engagement and revenue generation. “This was literally a missing piece in our [platform] that powers the money in and money out [of an existing account],” Ingo Payments CEO Drew Edwards told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an exclusive interview. “I’ve talked many times about how an account, a bank or a wallet is a place to store money, but in today’s world it must be easily created and funded digitally. It’s also a place to spend money from and there’s risk associated with it. You have to be really good at risk management. With this combination, we get the part in the middle. That’s what Deposits has built: a modern money stack for ledgering and issuing accounts, now in the middle of the Ingo Payments money mobility platform.” For banks and corporates, the ‘money stack’ offers a powerful tool to transform simple transactions into long-term customer relationships. The Deposits software, with its low-code and no-code capabilities, cloud-based ledgering, and streamlined APIs, makes it easier than ever to manage and track transactions. This simplifies the process, allowing institutions to focus on growth and customer satisfaction without being bogged down by technical complexities. “Our platform offers a comprehensive suite of APIs and tools that make it easy to deploy powerful financial solutions,” said Joseph Akintolayo, CEO of Deposits. “When we talk about the ‘money stack,’ we’re referring to the full spectrum of capabilities—everything from account creation to compliance—that businesses need to bring their products to market quickly and effectively. Partnering with Ingo Payments, we’re paving the way for a future where financial innovation is seamless and accessible.” Edwards said the acquisition will amplify the capabilities Ingo Payments already provides to a diverse set of industries, including banking, fintech, lending, hospitality, insurance, gaming and trucking. From Great Idea to Go Live Edwards used the example of a restaurant to describe the new Ingo Payments platform capabilities. More than 90% of restaurants still pay out cash tips at the end of a worker’s shift. Consider a restaurant that would like to eliminate the friction associated with cash payouts and pay directly and instantly into a worker’s bank account. Edwards said that with the Deposits acquisition, Ingo Payments will expand the available options to include new instant-issue accounts for workers that open up new revenue streams and opportunities to make it more cost effective for the restaurant and the worker. And, with Ingo powering some of the top restaurant operating systems in market today, the cloud ledgering that will now be integrated with inbound and outbound payments, as well as new accounts and complex money flows within this multi-layer ecosystem, can be tracked seamlessly.     In this use case, digital tipping becomes the baseline for a new branded account that simplifies payouts for the restaurant operator, enabling a true cashless experience that is portable as the worker changes jobs.  Edwards emphasized, it also turns what was formerly cash in an envelope into a new relationship with that worker and an ecosystem among the restaurants that becomes the basis for monetizing payments in new ways. Future-Proofing Money Movement and Money Stacks The Ingo Payments/Deposits integration creates a proprietary and modern money stack that brings together core and non-core capabilities such as digital experiences for embedded account creation, ledgering, funding accounts, accessing accounts, risk management and compliance — as part of a money stack that exists inside of the Ingo Payments money mobility platform. The platform is “processor-agnostic, core-agnostic and open-banking-agnostic”, helping banks and corporates leverage the power of creating new feature-rich account-based relationships that meet modern consumer expectations. These include receiving money from relevant form factors, including checks, and sending money to relevant destinations including P2P, Me2Me and bill payments. Edwards and Akintolayo use the term “proprietary” to mean, “ownership,” and with that the reduction in the number of third- and fourth-party integration and partners that banks and corporates have to manage from a risk perspective .  “You can’t outsource the core responsibilities of banking,” said Drew Edwards. “Banks are ultimately accountable for compliance, whether they use third parties or not. Our approach minimizes reliance on external partners, reducing the complexity and risks associated with compliance, and allowing banks to maintain tighter control over their operations. Ingo has been helping banks successfully do this for over 20 years and this expands on that capability.” Reducing the number of “layers and players,” and especially those that Edwards and Akintolayo consider core, makes the money movement and the money storage components easier for regulators, easier for banks, easier for even FinTechs to manage and to do it right, he emphasized. The Modern ‘Core’ Edwards also noted the potential for Ingo to now solve a big problem for banks, which is modernizing legacy infrastructure. “It’s our point of view that the bank is at the center of the banking side of this,” he told Webster. “One of the things that we see changing is more and more financial institutions adopting a platform like ours for their own use, for their own direct customers, not just their fintech partnerships. Everything from account creation to managing incoming and outgoing funds can be upgraded.” Ingo Payments’ new Deposits capabilities reduce the barriers to entry for banks and corporates handling the heavy lifting of compliance, regulatory requirements, and technical aspects. The platform offers ready-to-use, customizable components that require minimal to no coding skills, tailored for financial technology applications such as receiving payments, storing money and managing disbursements. Banks and corporates can quickly launch financial services that are specific to their needs without forcing a one-size-fits-all solution. It focuses on compliance and customization, Akintolayo said, allowing businesses to translate their brand and values into the digital financial world. “This is a game-changer for traditional financial institutions,” Akintolayo emphasized. “It empowers them to leap into the digital age, meeting the modern expectations of consumers and small businesses alike. With our integrated platform, they can quickly adapt to and thrive in today’s fast-paced, digital-first economy.” Read Press Release