Instant Financial and Clair are two earned wage access providers expanding and increasing revenue in the U.S. this year despite a shifting legal landscape.

The CEOs of both companies said in separate interviews last week that revenue has jumped this year as employers increasingly gravitate to offering workers faster access to their wages at no cost to employees for standard services. More states instituting laws to oversee the area may even be helping advance employer interest.

“Now that we have a number of states that have passed legislation, we do see more employers beginning to look for earned wage access solution, large employers that may have been on the sidelines a little bit because there was not really a regulatory environment around this,” Instant Financial CEO Tal Clark said in an interview Thursday.

Instant Financial, which mainly provides services to big restaurant chains, including Wendy’s and Outback Steakhouse, expects to have its third consecutive annual profit this year, Clark said. It will be the company’s best year ever in terms of annual revenue, rising by a double-digit percentage this year, he said, without disclosing financial details.

“We'll continue to expect that trend to stay where it is for the next four or five years,” said Clark, who expects the company to offer services in more industry verticals, including temporary staffing, manufacturing, transportation, logistics and healthcare.

Instant Financial provides virtual payroll cards that let employers channel wages to employees earlier than a scheduled payday and also allows employers to pool and distribute tips. The company primarily generates its revenue from the interchange fees that are triggered when employees spend with the cards.

Clark, who is based in Pensacola, Florida, sees Instant Financial as one of about ten EWA providers that acts in this business-to-business capacity, servicing the employer as opposed to marketing directly to workers. 

Clair, another privately held company, sells its EWA services through payroll software services, such as Intuit’s Quickbooks and Gusto. 

The business has had a similarly prosperous year so far in servicing its small and mid-size business clients that typically have about 20 to 25 employees. As of July, the company’s annual revenue run rate was $118 million, Clair CEO Nico Simko said Aug. 24.

“We've tripled the revenue and the user base and the volume of the platform,” since January, Simko said.

Both companies have adapted to state laws that have emerged in about ten states and have also adjusted to updates from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which revised an advisory opinion in December. 

Still, the CFPB is continuing to mull more changes to the advisory opinion, said Clark, whose company has been involved in the industry’s discussions with the CFPB over the years.

It’s a “fluid document,” Clark said. “There are certain pieces of it that we'd like to see considered again,” he said. “There's conversations ongoing.” 

Specifically, the federal agency should be less specific in its guidance as to how workers receive their payouts, Clark argues. It’s his opinion that the policy shouldn’t turn on whether that’s through paycheck deductions or alternatives, he said.

Clair hasn’t been involved in the CFPB discussions, Simko said.

Meanwhile, Simko and Clark are not overly focused on legislation that has been edging forward in Congress because it’s not clear it will win passage.

“We have been, in general, supportive of the legislation,” Clark said. “We think it would be good to have a framework at the federal level that we could all use as guidance going forward.” 

Still, Clark said “we're not optimistic it is going to pass.”

The House Financial Services Committee in late June approved the Earned Wage Access Consumer Protection Act proposal sponsored by Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil, which the Republican first introduced in 2024. Still, the bill doesn’t yet have a Senate companion even as the current two-year congressional session heads toward closure on Jan. 3.  

In any case, Simko believes new national guidance isn’t necessary because federal laws, such as the Truth in Lending Act, are already in place to provide oversight and guidance. While some EWA providers have been reluctant to have their services classified as lending, Simko embraces the notion.

“Technology providers want to comply, but every state will potentially have a different definition of what compliance means, and so I think the idea of having a federal-level ruling about earned wage access could help, but at the same time there is at the federal level something that already exists,” Simko said, referencing TILA. 

He notes that Clair also undertook the expense and effort to secure state licenses, even though it’s counting on its national bank partner to adhere to federal laws that would likely preempt state laws, he said. He suggested it’s a competitive advantage for his company to be in compliance at the federal and state levels, regardless of the morphing laws and regulations.

“It's way more expensive, so that's maybe the answer [as to] why we've done it and others have not,” he said, without naming any rivals.