Galileo Debuts Direct Deposit Tool

FinTech Galileo has launched the Galileo Direct Deposit Switch.

Powered by payroll infrastructure company Atomic, the tool gives Galileo clients a way to offer faster access to wages and an easier way to direct some or all of their paychecks into the financial services account of their choice.

“Recent Galileo research shows people are keeping money in more accounts, and they want fast, flexible ways to move and manage their money,” Galileo Chief Product Officer David Feuer said in a news release Tuesday (Dec. 13).

“As we continue to accelerate digital banking, Galileo Direct Deposit Switch will be the best way to drive value for our clients’ ledgers.”

The company says the tool lets customers set up and update their payroll direct deposit information, and specify how much of their wages they want to be deposited. It also lets them make recurring deposits to multiple accounts and create accounts for specific purposes, such as vacation or education funds.

“The new financial feature also eliminates processing delays, gives users peace of mind by instantly verifying requests, and empowers workers with greater control over where they route their funds,” the release said.

The launch of Direct Deposit Switch comes one week after Galileo debuted a buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution for banks and FinTechs.

PYMNTS spoke with Feuer and other FinTech executives in November about the future of embedded payments.

In an interview with PYMNTS’ Matt Nesto, Feuer noted that it took a full decade for consumer credit cards — which first came on the market in the late 1950s — to catch on.

“What’s happening now,” said Feuer, “is that with APIs and the Internet and the pervasiveness of connectivity, we’re starting to see the next generation of finance … happen at ‘Internet’ speed.”

We also collaborated with Galileo recently on the latest installment of our Embedded Finance Tracker. Our research found that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face significant obstacles when it comes to payment friction.

These payment complications can come in many forms, with 45% of SMBs citing manual reviews as a top challenge, 43% offering complaints about the high costs of making payments, 41% dealing with time-consuming payment processes, and 35% lacking financing options. On average, the SMBs we surveyed mentioned no less than four different payments challenges.