“Cyrpto” is a term applied to a broad range of products and services from digital currencies, to blockchains, to new forms of contracts and art called Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs. 

Payments professionals know that they need to understand these products, but they are very technical, and it can be hard to study up while also doing one’s day job. Still, when clients, customers, and management start asking about what the company’s crypto plans are, we need to understand the question.  

 In this episode we talk with long time crypto-journalist Bailey Reutzel about how all of these things work and where they fit into the world of payments.  

We talk about the history of bitcoin and whether or not it will ever become a true currency. We cover whether or not blockchains are as useful as they seem, and we look at what NFTs are and how they can be used.  

We then cover where a payments company might begin exploring the crypto space. While many avenues are available, there may be a few that are better places to start.  

You can find the podcast here, or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure subscribe and leave us a review to help others find the information.  
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If this make you want to learn more, the IPA also hosted a Summer of Learning Session with K & L Gates about the legal ins and outs of NFTs. You can find a recording of that webinar here: (40) Summer of Learning: NFTs - A “flash in the pan”? Or a true “game-changer”? - YouTube  ​

Capitol Hill has been taking an active interest in the payments industry. Overdraft, buy now pay later products, and even a possible computer chip shortage have all drawn lawmakers’ attention. 

On top of all that, the Durbin Amendment has resurfaced as a topic of conversation, and there are rumors that it may be extended to other types of payments. 

We cover all of this and more in our latest podcast episode with the IPA’s CEO, Brian Tate, and our Government Relations Director, Grant Hannah. 
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To learn more about the forces shaping the payments industry, we encourage our listeners to join the IPA for its Summer of Learning Webinar series, where we talk with regulators, industry leaders, and analysts about what they see coming in the world of payments innovation. Learn more and register at www.ipa.org.

​What is your company’s role in the payments industry (program manager, issuer, processor, service provider, etc.)? 

​Lindsay Davis, Head of Markets, Atomic: 
 
Atomic is a digital services provider. Our payroll integrations are the payments infrastructure to securely connect end consumers to financial data and automate setting up and updating direct deposits. 
 
Atomic is the market leading provider of payroll APIs, trusted by 10 of the largest fintech firms, including digital-first neobanks, alternative lenders, and digital brokerages. We are also the destination for direct deposit acquisition and enable features such as early paycheck and fractional payments, for banks, credit unions, and financial services partners. 

What kinds of payments do you support?   

Direct deposits account for our largest volume of payments and we also support ACH credits. A few use cases we support include payments by state unemployment systems and non-standard direct deposits from payroll providers such as fractional disbursements and non-recurring payments.
For market sizing context, in 2020, direct deposit accounted for 12% of ACH volume, representing 8 billion payments for salaries, wages, benefits, and assistance from employers to individuals, according to NACHA.
Atomic is also working with partners to digitize physical payments and reduce payroll fraud. While 94% of workers receive their pay electronically by direct deposit, checks capture off-cycle payments, such as real-time payouts and wages for non-W2 workers. The Federal Reserve collected 940 million paper checks worth $2.14 trillion in Q3’20.

What kinds of special features do your products and services offer?  
 
Atomic simplifies complicated payroll integrations with a single API that covers over 165 unique payroll connections. Including incumbent payroll providers, bespoke enterprise solutions, modern HR tech providers, gig-economy platforms and government systems, Atomic’s payroll APIs cover approximately 65% of the U.S. workforce with a combined reach of 95 million workers. Combining those elements gives us a stronger conversion benchmark to traditional players.
 
Put simply, Atomic’s payroll APIs connect consumers to their paycheck and financial data trapped in payroll systems.
 
This solves two problems for our customers and their end users. The first is accelerating payday for consumers through a streamlined portal to set up or change direct deposits. For neobanks and brick-and-mortar banks we work with, this improves direct deposit acquisition and creates a better user experience. 
 
The second problem we solve is qualifying users for financial services – for instance, loans or credit – that are contingent on income and employment data (VOI & VOE). The data behind the paycheck, such as gross earnings, earnings net of taxes, employment type and status, among other insights, are all accessible to consumers digitally. 
 
As the surface area for digital payments expands, so do the threats for fraud. Further, fraudsters are only getting more sophisticated. By reducing the circulation of paper checks and use of pictures and screen shots, we have been able to prevent payroll fraud for customers and blacklist scammers across Atomic’s customers. We have also obtained our SOC II certification and are in compliance with consumer data protection regulations including CCPA and GDPR to ensure consumers know their data is secure and they are always in control of who has permissioned access to their financial records. 

What kinds of companies are you looking to partner with?   

We are looking for partners that share our vision to build more on-ramps to financial services for consumers and ways to collaborate to achieve our shared goal of democratizing payments while mitigating fraud.
 
Payroll APIs is a nascent category we are actively bringing to market with our customers, partners, and peers in the industry. We have had positive momentum however, only made a dent in our mission. We welcome opportunities to increase industry acceptance, adoption, and bring new applications for payroll APIs to market with members of the IPA, regulators, payroll providers, fintech firms, and financial intuitions. 

What do you think the future of payments holds in the next five years?   

The future is bankless accounts enabled by APIs, akin to Henry Ford’s horseless carriage, and it’s here now. In 2020 branches were rendered irrelevant and despite adapting to the “innovate or die” philosophy of fintech, banks are debating the past and fast following fintech playbooks. It might take longer than five years, however, in time we’ll evolve entirely from the branch-based model to mobile-first, as it’s already happening now, something we shared further insights on in our Atomic Intelligence newsletter here.