Dive Brief:

• DailyPay, an on-demand pay provider, is partnering with Visa to release a prepaid debit card, the company said in an announcement emailed to Payments Dive. The move adds another way for DailyPay to make its earned wage access available to workers.
• The release said that the debit card provides cardholders with free instant DailyPay transfers, a network of no-fee ATMs and a mobile banking platform that lets customers track income and spending.
• Cardholders can also access their wages the day before payday to make purchases without receiving late charges. They can also add the card to Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, per the announcement.

Dive Insight:

In its release, DailyPay cited rising inflation and increasing interest rates as the reason why U.S. workers need the latest extension to such financial tools the company has been providing since 2016. With such on-demand pay tools, also known as early wage access, employees can tap their wages earlier than their usual payday.

As those economic challenges have emerged this year, the New York-based DailyPay has touted new employers using its services. Some of those additions include BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, a Jimmy John’s franchisee, Sonic licensee Great American Hospitality and Five Guy’s franchisee Life’s Food. The employers said the offering gives them an edge in the extra-competitive environment for workers.

As the company has been lining up new restaurants and retailers as clients this year, it has also undergone leadership changes. In June, the company announced that Kevin Coop would become CEO and join the board of directors. He replaced Jason Lee, who founded the company.

The company also hired Mike McKeon as its new senior vice president of channel and partnership strategy, according to an Aug. 4 press release. In February, the company appointed Scott Sampson, with prior experience at Vonage and IBM, as its first chief revenue officer, according to a Feb. 8 release.

DailyPay is one of the payments startups that collectively attracted a record $32 billion globally from venture capital firms in 2021, according to research from CB Insights. According to a May 2021 press release, the company nabbed $500 million in financial support, including $175 million in equity capital and $325 million in credit, from multiple sources. 

But as DailyPay raises funds and shakes up its leadership team, early wage payments have faced calls for more regulatory oversight. Nearly 100 consumer protection organizations, including the NAACP and the National Consumer Law Center, sent an open letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last October asking the agency to review the on-demand pay industry’s fees.

In addition, Utah State House Rep. James Dunnigan last year sponsored legislation that would create guidelines for the industry, and he pointed to DailyPay as one of the proposal's opponents. However, DailyPay said in a statement that it supported consumer protection efforts by elected officials.