SOUTH African fintech Floatpays has launched a new savings product to help employees avoid ‘Januworry’ financial blues.
The company’s founder Simon Ward said that this was in an effort to remedy the situation where South Africans felt the pinch after the festive season splurge.
The licensed financial services provider, Floatpays said it was able to offer employees an interest-bearing savings account, powered by Standard Bank.
Ward explained that employees can make a direct investment from their earnings each month. “Contributions to the Floatpays savings account are made directly from a person’s earnings via their employer’s payroll system. The employee determines how much they want to contribute each month and can make a single withdrawal against this account on a date set by their employer. This encourages employees to be more discerning around their spending and more invested in building their savings in anticipation of the end of the year,” Ward said.
Ward said that, according to research conducted by the US data intelligence platform, Proof of Impact, 76% of South Africans ran out of money before the end of the month and 40% of them spend between 41% and 100% of their income paying off debt. He said the South African workforce was undoubtedly facing unprecedented pressure, compounded by the effects of the pandemic.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE