AN ISRAELI-BASED financial technology PayKey has introduced a new solution that allows employees to access their salary before payday and release their hard earned money with just a click of a button.
This white-labeled solution dubbed Earned Wage Access (EWA) that started in the United States and is now gaining popularity worldwide will now be available in the Philippines this year. This solution can be integrated and offered by banks to their corporate accounts so employers can incorporate it as a benefit for their employees.
Through EWA, employees can now access their already earned salaries at any time to pay for their current expenses. As a standalone app offered by PayKey for banks, employees can easily see their earned salaries to date. Then, if they want to have an advance on their wages, they can just request it through EWA. The requested amount will be transferred to the employee’s bank account as soon as it is approved.
The EWA trend will help employers minimize their workers’ financial stress, which will assist in improving their workplace productivity and employees’ well-being.
In workplaces, financial stress has been found as one of the main concerns that employees around the world contend with every day.
In a recent report, Visa revealed that 84 percent of 1,000 employees are troubled by their finances while working. This situation affects their health, well-being and productivity, as stated by 68 percent of that study’s surveyed individuals.
Employees in the Philippines share this same experience.
According to a study by Backbase, at least 51 percent of 100 surveyed Filipinos said they’re currently worried about the state of their finances. It also revealed that the Philippines is the leading country when it comes to financial stress in the Asia-Pacific, indicating that seven in 10 Filipinos find it challenging to manage their debts.
This is the reason most Filipinos resort to borrowing money from their family and friends or external lenders that offer high interest rates.
“EWA is not a loan. It has no interest rate because you’re accessing and withdrawing your earned money. With a fixed transaction fee, it will enable employees to easily advance their wages before payday to pay for their immediate expenses. We hope that with our solution, we can help banks and employers reduce employees’ financial stress and improve their well-being, especially at times like this,” said Roy Gabriel, chief innovation officer, and general manager of PayKey.
As a new type of service for banks, EWA may help encourage unbanked Filipinos to get banked to achieve the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) goal of 70 percent of Filipinos with bank accounts in 2023 under its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap.
As of the first quarter of 2021, BSP Gov. Benjamin Diokno said the proportion of banked Filipino adults has reached 53 percent, nearing the target of 70 percent. These include basic deposit and e-money accounts.