Early wage access fintechs like PayActiv, DailyPay and Branch are all seeing a big boost from the ongoing crisis and some are making their services free; the practice overall is quite controversial and there are some that think this could put people in an even bigger hole as the crisis is bound to last weeks or months; PayActiv has seen a 6 percent increase and has made their service free; DailyPay’s Chief Innovation Officer Jeanniey Mullen tells American Banker, “We started to see a significant and consistent increase in not only the usage of earned income, but also the percentage of our earned income going specifically towards preparing for the coronavirus”; Branch is seeing an uptick in employer adoption and interest in their offering, though it is too early to know if early wage access usage is going up. American Banker
