Instant Financial Debuts App for Faster Earned Wage Access

Earned wage access firm Instant Financial released a new mobile app and updated mobile wallet.

“Understanding that over 50% of Americans would likely avoid major financial pitfalls if they could instantly access a portion of their pay after every day’s work, the new Instant mobile app is narrowing this financial gap by placing financial empowerment directly into the hands of employees,” the company said in a news release Tuesday (March 19).

The app — which the company debuted in beta last year — offers users faster access to their earned wages, along with security features such as biometrics and multifactor authentication, the release said. It also lets users choose how and when they want to access their wages, via methods like direct deposit, the Instant card or a mobile wallet.

“Employee demands regarding how they access their wages are constantly shifting, and our new app is meeting that head-on,” Instant Financial CEO Tal Clark said in the release. “Whether it’s to cover unexpected expenses, avoid predatory loans, or simply to enjoy more control over their finances, Instant is continually revolutionizing the way people get paid.”

The launch comes amid an ongoing debate between regulators and EWA FinTechs that “looks set to heat up through the next several months,” PYMNTS wrote last month.

That came after Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra wrote to the American Fintech Council calling for a meeting of “relevant stakeholders” to have a “comprehensive conversation of EWA and consideration of a formal rulemaking.”

The CFPB argued the council has “multiple options in their regulatory toolkit that could be used to formally or informally regulate the emerging EWA market.”

For its part, the council warned against “shoehorning” EWA products into existing lending laws and called for federal-level regulation in place of the “patchwork approach” toward EWA regulation at the state level.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS Intelligence found that most working Americans want their employers to give them access to wages each day, while more than half of those with EWA said they had used it. And 75% of millennials said EWA options would influence their acceptance of a job offer.

“This last point is critical, as jockeying for younger employees remains intense and loyalty means that companies need to worry less about churn and re-filling/retraining talent,” PYMNTS wrote in February. “As many as a quarter of companies have said they have lost employees due to delayed payroll.”