Cheshire fintech Income Group expands ‘Faster Payments for payroll’ footprint through new Zellis partnership
Fast-growing Cheshire fintech Income Group working with its strategic partner Mastercard has today (Tuesday, 3rd August) announced a new collaboration with Zellis, the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of payroll and HR solutions, to bring real-time Faster Payments for payroll to its UK customers.
Zellis’ customers, which include a third of FTSE 100 companies, process pay for tens of thousands of employees and they will now have a quicker alternative to the traditional Bankers Automated Clearing Services (Bacs) payroll transfers, made possible with IGsend, Income Group’s FCA-regulated payment technology platform.
While consumers have become accustomed to near instantaneous money transfers through Faster Payments, most company payrolls still operate using the traditional Bacs, which takes up to three business days to complete.
Zellis’ Faster Payments service will now give organisations the ability to process these payments in seconds, 24 hours a day, every day of the week, giving busy payroll teams much greater flexibility in processing payrolls, in addition to freeing time for more strategic work. The service is easily integrated alongside existing payroll processes, including large organisations with complex and diverse payroll requirements.
With Bacs, organisations must lock in their payroll information well in advance of payday to ensure salaries are paid on time. Businesses may also need to use the Clearing House Automated Payment System (CHAPS) and pay fees to rectify payroll errors identified during processing windows, or when making other supplementary payments, adding significant extra administrative and banking cost. This can be reduced by up to 80 per cent by using Zellis and Income Group’s integrated Faster Payments platform.
The introduction of Zellis’ Faster Payments service illustrates the company’s ambition to offer the most innovative and effective solutions to its customers, most of whom have the most sophisticated and complex payroll structures required to accurately pay thousands of employees.
It also reflects an overall trend towards the growing use of real-time payments including for payroll processing. The latest data from Pay.uk shows a 25 per cent increase in the volume of single immediate payments through Faster Payments compared to last year (link).
“We are very excited to be introducing customers to the speed and efficiencies Faster Payments can bring. Companies like PayPal and Revolut have shown the power of Faster Payments in our daily lives. It’s time for employees to enjoy the same speed, flexibility and accuracy in their payroll – whether they are paid monthly, weekly, or – in the future – even daily” said John Petter, CEO, Zellis.
“We are delighted to be working with Mastercard and Income Group on this exciting innovation. Faster payments offer real cost savings, management time efficiencies and real risk mitigation benefits. We also see faster payments as the foundation of more flexible approach to pay, and a step on the journey to delivering the ability to pay in real-time. This is an emerging vision of a way of paying people that will deliver real financial well-being benefits and a better experience to employees.”
Ian Wheeler, CEO & Founder at Income Group said: “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Zellis to help expand the footprint of Faster Payments, using our innovative IGSend platform to bring positive disruption to payroll. Payroll is the most critical payment a business can make with trust between employer and employee paramount. Zellis is a forward-looking organisation leading the charge, embracing the bright future of Faster Payments, supporting the case for ‘not if, but when’ for businesses.”
“Payroll is a time critical process and a key use case for how real-time payments can make a valuable difference, not only on businesses, but also their employees, when it comes to paying salaries and getting paid. At this challenging time, enabling businesses with more control over their cash flow is a significant benefit,” said Gregor Dobbie CEO of Vocalink, a Mastercard Company.
