Fintech Talents

Fintech Talents

Kallyas is an ultra-premium, responsive theme built for today websites.

T (212) 555 55 00
Email: sales@yourwebsite.com

Your Company LTD
Street nr 100, 4536534, Chicago, US


Community & Events

STAY TUNED

How payroll providers can advance worker emergency savings: 3 key takeaways

by Lisa Moyle / Tuesday 21 February 2023 / Published in Blog, Community, Embedded Finance, Opinion

Providing a liquid, high-quality emergency savings option through the workplace is key to improving financial security and building wealth for workers living on low and moderate incomes (LMI). It is also of great value to companies as emergency savings3 reduces the financial impact of unexpected expenses and helps mitigate the financial insecurity that fosters chronic stress among workers, which costs employers $250 billion a year in reduced productivity. However, many companies and financial wellness experts are not aware of high-quality emergency savings solutions easily available to them already (e.g., in and around the payroll space).

A recent case study, How ADP’s Solution Facilitated $1.5 Billion in Emergency Savings supported by BlackRock’s Embergency Savings Initiative, demonstrates that payroll service providers are uniquely positioned to help companies of all sizes provide quality financial security solutions to their employees.

High-quality emergency savings features deployed in the payroll space could meet the needs of workers living on LMI and it illustrates how companies can partner with payroll service providers to provide innovative emergency savings products to their employees.

Three key takeaways from the report:

1 – Payroll is a powerful tool that HR and benefits teams can leverage to help employees build emergency savings.

ADP—the nation’s largest provider of payroll services, reaching one in six workers in the U.S.—offered a high-quality emergency savings3 option through its Wisely® card¹ and myWisely® mobile app². As part of BlackRock’s Emergency Savings Initiative, ADP in collaboration with Commonwealth, added enhanced high-quality savings features available to all Wisely cardholders, offered through the myWisely mobile app, which resulted in increased savings to over $1.5 billion and 2.7x higher net inflows. This demonstrates the ability of well-designed, high-quality payroll tools to help employers support their employees’ savings and financial wellness needs.

In a webinar discussion of the report,  Anurag Chandra Division Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, ADP said, “That moment of truth of the payday every Friday becomes a really important day in the lives of all these workers. We want to take advantage in the right way of providing them the right tools on that day to make the right decision—to save or spend.” HR and benefits teams have the opportunity to leverage this crucial payment moment to help their employees build emergency savings.

2 – A one size solution doesn’t work for all employees—a large employer is offering a mix of payroll and retirement linked solutions to meet diverse needs.

As part of Blackrock’s Emergency Savings Initiative, Commonwealth partnered with AutoNation, a large employer, to launch an innovative, multi-solution employee emergency savings program. Nancy Weis, Senior Director, Retirement, Benefits Financial Reporting and Relocation, AutoNation noted (during the same webinar), “We learned that our population has very different needs and views on what a good program or a beneficial program for them would look like.” They launched a three-pronged approach leveraging AutoNation’s payroll systems including the split deposit functionality, and ADP’s Wisely card¹ and myWisely app², and a third option within the 401(k) plan through Voya, another partner in Blackrock’s Emergency Savings Initiative. Weis hopes that through their comprehensive program, “everyone can find a program that will fit their needs”

3 – There is a need for evidence-based strategies that drive employee savings.
Nancy Weis mentioned, “We saw a trend that more and more employees are looking to their employers to help them save.” As employers increasingly seek to meet their employees’ needs, Commonwealth’s work as part of Blackrock’s Emergency Savings Initiative offers rich learnings around program design to drive savings behavior.

Commonwealth, BlackRock’s Emergency Savings Initiative, and field research indicates that people living on LMI desire emergency savings accounts with no fees, no minimum balances, and immediate liquidity. Building off these baseline high-quality features, additional research-based enhancements including envelope customization, automation, and gamification drove build/use/rebuild savings at ADP. As Nick Maynard, Senior Vice President, Commonwealth mentions, “[Our research] demonstrates that folks who live on low to moderate incomes can and will save when high-quality, research-backed features are made available.” Savings can be further increased by targeted inclusive messaging from emergency savings solution providers and employers—we saw messaging pilots at ADP drive a 23% boost in savings, and as high as a 35% boost at one employer. Claire Chamberlain noted the research with ADP, saying how the strong results demonstrate that well-designed solutions can be very effective, and it shows that “it wasn’t a lack of education, it was a failure of product offering.”

A recording of the webinar discussing the report is available on Commonwealth’s website, as well as a highlights reel.

To learn more about Commonwealth’s research, read the case study, How ADP’s Solution Facilitated $1.5 Billion in Emergency Savings

About BlackRock’s Emergency Savings Initiative

BlackRock announced a $50 million philanthropic commitment to help millions of people living on low to moderate incomes gain access to and increase usage of proven savings strategies and tools — ultimately helping them establish an important safety net. The size and scale of the savings problem requires the knowledge and expertise of established industry experts that are recognized leaders in savings research and interventions on an individual and corporate level. Led by its Social Impact team, BlackRock is partnering with innovative industry experts Common Cents Lab, Commonwealth, and the Financial Health Network to give the initiative a comprehensive and multilayered approach to address the savings crisis. Learn more at www.savingsproject.org(opens in a new tab)

Disclaimers:

¹The Wisely card is a prepaid card, references to digital account are referring to the management and servicing of your prepaid card online digitally or through a mobile app. The Wisely card is not a credit card and does not build credit.

²Standard text message fees and data rates may apply.

³Amounts transferred to your savings envelope will no longer appear in your available balance. You can transfer money from your savings envelope back to your available balance at any time using the myWisely app mobile app.

The Wisely Pay Visa® is issued by Fifth Third Bank, N.A., Member FDIC or Pathward, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. The Wisely Pay Mastercard® is issued by Fifth Third Bank, N.A., Member FDIC or Pathward, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to license by Mastercard International Incorporated. The Wisely Direct Mastercard is issued by Fifth Third Bank, N.A., Member FDIC. ADP is a registered ISO of Fifth Third Bank, N.A., or Pathward, N.A. The Wisely Pay Visa card can be used everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. Visa and the Visa logo are registered trademarks of Visa International Service Association. The Wisely Pay Mastercard and Wisely Direct Mastercard can be used where debit Mastercard is accepted. Mastercard and the circles design are registered trademarks of Mastercard International Incorporated.

ADP, the ADP logo, Wisely, myWisely, and the Wisely logo are registered trademarks of ADP, Inc. Copyright © 2022 ADP, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

About the author

  • Lisa Moyle
    Lisa Moyle
    Chief Strategy Officer, VC Innovations

    Lisa Moyle is a co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at VC Innovations. Previously, she was director of strategy, fintech, at Informa where she established and led a portfolio of global fintech events and activity. She also worked at techUK, where she was head of the Financial Services and Payments programme and contributed to a broad range of policy initiatives in support of financial services innovation.

    View all posts


Tagged under: #FTTEmFin, Collaboration, Embedded finance, fintech, FTT Embedded Finance NA, payroll, Splash

Recent Posts

  • Empowering Members, One Loan at a Time: A Conversation with Ciara Davies, CEO of Metro MoneyWise Credit Union

    Who says that credit unions can’t innovat...
  • Lending through change: A conversation with Simon Taylor, Melton Building Society

    Data, niches, and AI: Simon Taylor on the evolu...
  • Registration now open for the 2025 edition of the FTT Fintech Festival

    2nd June 2025, London: Registration for the 202...
  • From complex to seamless: A chat with Roger Vincent, Bourn

    Built for growth, designed for simplicity At FT...
  • Smarter lending through open banking: A chat with Matthew Barr, Moneyhub

    Empowering lenders with real-time insights: The...


  • Home
  • Call for speakers
  • View all events
  • Fintech Talents events
    • FTT Fintech Festival 2025
    • FTT AI Transformation 2025
    • FTT Mutuals 2025
    • Breakfast briefing: Lending with intelligence 2025
    • FTT Financial Services Futures 2025
    • FTT Lending 2026
    • FTT Payments 2026
    • Fintech Talents Road Trip 2026
    • Fintech Talents North America 2026
  • FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps events
    • FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps Europe 2026
    • Customer Alpha Europe 2026
    • FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps North America East Coast 2026
    • Customer Alpha North America East Coast 2026
    • FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps North America West Coast 2026
    • Customer Alpha North America West Coast 2026
  • Future Identity events
    • Future Identity Festival 2025
    • FID Fraud & FinCrime – Fall Europe 2025
    • Future Identity Finance Europe 2026
    • FID Fraud & FinCrime – Spring Europe 2026
    • Future Identity Customer Europe 2026
    • FID Fraud & FinCrime – Summer Europe 2026
    • Future Identity Finance North America 2026
    • Future Identity Customer North America 2026
  • Past events
    • Fraud prevention & customer experience webinar 2025
    • Open Finance & Consumer Duty webinar 2024
    • FTT SME Banking 2023
    • Unboxing the Next Generation of Embedded Finance 2023
    • FTT AI Transformation webinar 2024
  • Content
    • All Content
    • Interviews
    • Opinion
    • Videos
    • Digital Reports
  • VC INNOVATIONS – Accelerated Marketing

GET IN TOUCH

T +44 203 835 2829
Email: marketing@vcinnovations.co.uk

LONDON
85 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TQ
Open in Google Maps

NEW YORK
477 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Suite 1033, New York, NY 10013
Open in Google Maps

QUICK LINKS

  • Home
  • About VC INNOVATIONS
  • Events
  • FAQs
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

RECENT POSTS

  • Empowering Members, One Loan at a Time: A Conversation with Ciara Davies, CEO of Metro MoneyWise Credit Union

    Who says that credit unions can’t innovat...
  • Lending through change: A conversation with Simon Taylor, Melton Building Society

    Data, niches, and AI: Simon Taylor on the evolu...
  • Registration now open for the 2025 edition of the FTT Fintech Festival

    2nd June 2025, London: Registration for the 202...
  • Privacy Policy

© VC Innovations 2018. All Rights Reserved.



TOP
 
SAVE £700 WITH THE SUPER EARLY BIRD BEFORE 4th JULY
BOOK TODAY
 
 
SAVE £700 WITH THE SUPER EARLY BIRD BEFORE 4th JULY
BOOK TODAY
 
 
SAVE £700 WITH THE SUPER EARLY BIRD BEFORE 4th JULY
BOOK TODAY
 
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Get involved


FTT Payments 2025 - Download previous attendee list


Download now


Press & Media Pass


Get involved



FTT Mutuals 2025 - Download previous attendee list


FTT AI Transformation 2025 - Download previous attendee list


Get involved


Get involved