In a world where everything is available on demand, being paid once every month is an increasingly outdated way of doing things for many. Leveraging the unique pay link between employer and employee to empower workers to instantly access, save and budget from their earned wages, fintech start-up Level is challenging the salary status quo and moving the industry towards a future where any day could be pay day.
Levelling up the salary playing field
Imagine a future where every employer provides their workers with the means and knowledge to own their financial lives. Since its inception three years ago, Level has set out to make this vision a reality. They realised early on that the concept of monthly pay was becoming increasingly outdated and irrelevant in today’s ‘instant economy’ and that employers are uniquely positioned to help their workers build a stronger financial future. Level was established to provide a holistic solution to the 'here and now' of financial health.
“Companies have, in the UK at least and for the most part, paid monthly but the only reason we could see for doing so was because that's just how it's always been,” explains Paul Jackson Co-founder & Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) for Level. “So, in a world where other areas of finance are becoming more flexible, we saw the opportunity to make being paid much more flexible too.”
“And, we realised that doing so would benefit not just the employees, but also the companies providing this service in terms of increased productivity, increased retention and increased staff loyalty.” He adds.
Solving the salary shortcomings
In addressing the UK’s salary shortcomings, Level offer pay-linked services designed to meet an employee’s short and long-term financial needs. Through on-demand pay, salary-linked savings, Open Banking-powered budgeting tools and financial education, they help workers take control of their finances and move toward a life free from financial stress.
In delivering the solution, Level knew it needed need an incredibly reliable, secure and fast payment service provider. “Our clients trust us to process payroll payments on behalf of their staff and we take that trust incredibly seriously. So, we were looking for a partner who could provide really high levels of reliability and up-time. As well as incredible support and the ability to process large volumes of payments, at scale. Modulr was the best company we could find in the market that could provide those things, and more,” said Paul.
Partnership that’s another level
Modulr’s flexible payments architecture underpins Level’s wage advance proposition. The agile, API-enabled platform allows Level to securely manage and automate the flow of money for its employer customers by creating and administering accounts and making payments, all via a single integration.
In order for employees to be able to access the scheme, an advance account is created on behalf of the employing company which becomes the source of funds for any transfers its employees choose to make throughout the pay period. When employees request an advance in the Level App, the Modulr platform transfers out a percentage of the earned wages from Level’s Modulr account to the employer's advance account and then on to the employee’s personal bank account. This automated process takes a matter of seconds, thanks to Modulr’s direct participation into the UK Faster Payments scheme.
“We’ve had feedback that users can’t believe how quickly the money hits their account when they request an advance from Level, it's pretty much instantaneous. And that's all down to Modulr’s direct access to the Faster Payments system. I think it's a really powerful thing,” said Paul.
Economies of scale
In addition to providing the payments architecture on which the Level solution is built, Modulr has also been instrumental in how the proposition has evolved, and how it will scale.
“Modulr’s payments experts were very influential when it came to how we designed our business and that’s down to their deep-rooted payments expertise. They weren’t just selling a piece of technology, but a complete solution,” said Paul.
“This allowed us to scale very quickly. And it has allowed us to onboard large enterprise clients who come to us with large volumes of payments. We were involved in what we believe was the largest rollout of an on-demand paid solution at that time in Europe and that type of large, enterprise-scale solution wouldn’t have been possible without the reliable, scalable payments architecture which Modulr provides,” he adds.
And, what does the future hold for Level and Modulr?
Well, this forward-thinking FinTech is looking to fulfil its European ambitions by leveraging Modulr’s burgeoning European payments capability.
“Right now, we’re exploring potential European expansion plans, leveraging Modulr’s access to the European payment networks and its recent launch of SEPA Instant,” explains Paul. “This is just one example of how Modulr’s product roadmap is benefitting our own and deepening our partnership, making it much more strategic.”