SOLE, WiseWage Team Up On Payroll For Underbanked Employees

SOLE Financial and WiseWage, both providers of payroll cards, are teaming up to link underbanked employees with ways to receive their salaries.

In a Tuesday (Nov. 28) announcement, SOLE Financial said it will be linking its payroll cards to WiseWage’s own corporate clients in need of payroll solutions for their underbanked or unbanked employees. According to WiseWage, which is owned by non-profit Reinvestment Partners and — similar to SOLE Financial — focuses on servicing underbanked employees, the decision to collaborate with SOLE is an effort “to move from advocacy to action in the financial inclusion space.”

WiseWage helps its employer clients choose between prepaid or low-risk bank accounts for their own employees, the company explained; working with SOLE means WiseWage can now allows those corporate clients to offer payroll cards as well.

“We chose SOLE because SOLE Paycards are more affordable for workers than prepaid cards, but the SOLE payroll card is even better than prepaid cards,” said Adam Rust, WiseWage managing director, in a statement. “There’s no overdraft fee, workers can make cash back transactions and SOLE offers a robust financial literacy program for cardholders. The real opportunity is to appeal to small businesses’ desire to save money and use that incentive to trigger unbanked workers into the banking system. Everybody wins.”

“When the opportunity arose to help the unbanked workforce in partnership with Adam and his team, we jumped at the chance,” added SOLE Financial President Tom Secor in another statement. “Our companies’ shared passion for serving the underserved was immediately apparent. Through this collaboration, we were able to dramatically expand our financial inclusion efforts. We’re firm believers that experiencing the cost, time and security benefits of direct deposit should be enjoyed by every employee, not just those with access to traditional bank accounts.”