Earned-wage access is now a reality, with U.S. Bank and PNC last month debuting real-time payroll solutions for business customers.

On-demand payments availability presents an innovation opportunity for banks, Radha Suvarna, head of enterprise payments strategy and innovation at Citizens, said last week at the Bank Automation Summit in Charlotte, N.C.

“We are still in the early phases of what these new use cases can deliver,” Suvarna said. “I think that is really where the opportunity is.”

PNC went live with an earned-wage solution Feb. 23, tapping DailyPay for its PNC EarnedIt app. The $560 billion bank previously partnered with DailyPay and The Clearing House in June 2021 to facilitate real-time payment (RTP) transactions for the fintech. The partnership extension will now provide employees of PNC Treasury Management customers with on-demand wage access through the card or account of their choosing, DailyPay Chief Innovation Officer Jeanniey Walden told Bank Automation News.

“PNC has been able to leverage the existing infrastructures that DailyPay has made available over the past year in our DailyPay Marketplace,” Walden said. “PNC is benefiting from a seamless application programming interface [API] integration for their business.”

The U.S. Bank solution, which was released Feb. 16, gives customer employees the ability to access up to 50% of their earned wages with a $1,000 maximum. Wages are then delivered through the U.S. Bank Focus Card or directly to a linked bank account via RTP, bypassing lengthy automated clearing house (ACH) wait times and eliminating the need for traditional payroll. The solution is leveraged through a partnership with payments fintech Payactiv.

The $573 billion bank will continue developing payroll automations moving forward.