Meeting Them Where They Work: The Promise of Financial Services Distribution in the Workplace

This paper focuses on financial services, which if provided in the workplace, can create another pathway to greater participation in retirement and other longer-term workplace saving programs.

The paper discusses the following aspects of these financial services:

• Scale: Direct deposit of salary into bank account of the employees is seen by banks and credit unions as a way to gain commercial customers' payroll accounts and provide those customers with an additional benefit for their employees;
• Facilitation: The workplace can be an effective delivery channel for financial services because of the relative ease of facilitation of financial products;
• Timing: Firms have opportunities to reach customers the moment they get paid and make a variety of other financial decisions, such as saving for retirement and choosing insurance programs.

The paper concludes that:

• Workplace distribution is evolving rapidly;
• Individuals are shouldering more responsibility for their financial health and well being;
• Employee-consumers have become the focus of more interest and there are an increasing number of service providers competing for the employees' share of wallet;
• Employers will need to be vigilant and offer products that fill the gaps in employees' financial needs.