Would YOU like to be paid daily or weekly? Fintech start-up launches pilot scheme at data firm to see if staff prefer their salary more regularly than once a month

• Hi55 Ventures, created by David Brown, 55, wants to change the salary system
• Company wants to provide a lifeline to employees ‘shackled’ by monthly pay 
• Under the plan, employees will be able to access salary weekly or even daily 

A Scottish financial technology firm has joined with Mastercard to offer a new service that will allow workers to receive their salaries weekly or even daily.  

Hi55 Ventures, created last summer by David Brown, 55, wants to change the traditional monthly salary system to benefit both employees and employers and has received the backing of an unnamed global investment firm with over $50 billion of assets. 

The company says it wants to provide a lifeline to employees ‘shackled’ by monthly pay, leading to reduced financial stress and increasing productivity and well-being. 

Mastercard has agreed to provide cards to Mr Brown, who has also set up partnerships with NTT Data, a technology specialist, and Railsbank, a banking platform.

Hi55 is currently undergoing a pilot with NTT staff which Mr Brown hopes will bolster support for his firm. 

Mastercard is backing Hi55 which wants to revolutionise the way workers get their salary (stock photo)

Mr Brown added that his firm has a vision of empowering the individual so they can access their hard-earned cash at any time. 

Under the system, Hi55 will step in to pay employees for a ‘low cost’, and allow employers to defer payments for eight to twelve weeks.  

He told Radio 4’s Today programme this morning: ‘We’ve actually brought a win-win for both parties where we can help the employer finance payroll and also improve the well-being of the employees by allowing them access to pay, or more frequent pay, free of charge, therefore eliminating payday lenders.

‘The services are called early wage access. Predominantly, most of them, charge employees to access their wages whereas we refuse to charge the employee any fee for accessing their money because we think that’s fundamentally wrong.

‘If I can change how you are paid, then I should be able to help how you pay. A good example of that would be, if you have credit card debt and you can pay it weekly, then you would actually save 25% of the repayment because you are actually paying a month interest rather than just a week. That can happen in all of the products in your life.’

The entrepreneur also believes his firm can help businesses by giving them a new stream of capital.  

Hi55 Ventures was created last summer by David Brown, 55

The investment firm will provide an undisclosed sum of funding for companies to pay their workers under the new system. 

This, Mr Brown says, would allow companies and hit by the economic effects of Covid-19 to recover and rebuild.  

He explained: ‘We charge the employer £3.50 per employee because effectively we’re re-engineering their payroll. 

‘If the employer is very highly-rated, which some of our clients are, then it can work out at less than 2% interest a year on the financing. If the employer is an SME, then that would go closer to 7% a year.

‘The overall vision of Hi55 and the partnership we’ve just announced with Mastercard is, wouldn’t it be nice if payroll was like a credit card where at the end of the month you can determine whether you want to pay the interest only, whether you want to pay part of it or all of it. Wouldn’t be great for the employer to have that flexibility in payroll? ? That’s what we’re heading towards.’

He says bringing in external funders gives employers more time to pay. 

The investment is secured because employees count as senior preferred creditors, which means that, if the employer goes bust, workers are high up in the queue of parties who will be paid. 

According to Brown, this means that giving firms credit based on salaries is low-risk for investors.  

He added: ‘This isn’t a loan. It’s been structured in such a way that it is a credit facility against payroll. This is structured to pay around pay asset finance, which is your employees are your greatest asset and if they can help you financially stabilise your company that’s actually in the benefit of the employer and employee.’

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