The race to provide coronavirus relief for small businesses is opening new routes to fund payments, including underused credit lines.
Fiserv is allowing cardholders to access credit lines without an additional application, adjudication or origination fees. The idea is these businesses can then use these funds to make recurring payments that usually don’t get made with credit cards, such as rent, mortgages, procurement or other recurring transactions. The product is aimed at all users but the main focus is smaller financial institutions and small businesses, both of which are hurting during the pandemic.
The product is the latest in a series of moves by bank technology firms, fintechs and merchant acquirers to repurpose core products for the crisis, hoping to keep clients whole while retaining revenue for the long term.
Stripe’s play is to use a new
Fiserv is taking a different tack, contending there’s more flexibility in its program to support or fund payments that may be harder to execute through the PPP, which requires the money be used primarily for payroll to maintain employment levels. Fiserv contends businesses may need more capital or flexibility than that.
“If you can use PPP for payroll and rent, then you can use" Fiserv’s product for purchases or supplies, said Raju Mudunuri, director of product strategy for card services at Fiserv.
The Biden administration once again extended the pause on student loan payments enacted to help borrowers during the COVID-19 pandemic, this time through the end of August.
The two states' combined plans amount to over $1.5 billion of the Homeowner Assistance Fund included within the American Rescue Plan Act , which was passed a year ago.
An uptick in pandemic-related payment suspensions reflecting new or restarted plan activity previously occurred as the omicron variant spread, but activity has since subsided.
The
Small businesses, particularly restaurants, have also reported difficulty in distributing the funds and what expenses can be covered, leading to changes in
Fiserv says it’s found an underutilized source of money that can fill some of these gaps. The company’s internal research reports 72% of consumer credit lines are unused, averaging $4,000 per account; and 83% of small-business owners credit lines are unused, or about $15,000 per account.
Under Fiserv’s program, called FlexLine Advance, financial institutions can define up to three lending options, including interest rates and payment periods. The cardholders use online account management to select a plan, loan amount and account to send the funds through ACH transfer. Upon fulfillment of the request, the funds will be deposited in the checking/savings account in 2 business days.
Fintech small-business lending programs from firms such as Square and PayPal rely on future payment flows to pay down loans, using past performance as an indicator of future financial health — though the virus has also complicated that model for offline businecesses.
Fiserv is not using that model specifically, but there is an element of the past as prologue. Many of the businesses are already clients of Fiserv or the company’s client banks, creating an existing relationship and data stream that allow for faster approval for new capital. Additionally, the lines of credit have already been approved, leaving only the traditional steps to access the line of credit that are being streamlined, Mudunuri said.
“The financial institutions have already looked at the performance of these small businesses and already know what their cash flow is,” Mudunuri said. “There’s also a digital element to this, where the businesses don’t have to go to a branch or an ATM, so the process can be contactless."
The product is another example of how a large existing bank technology company such as Fiserv can use acquired payment technology to bridge card issuance and merchant services. Fiserv gained First Data’s merchant acquiring and payment technology through its 2019 transaction, one of several such deals in the payments industry.
“We’re focused on the small to midsized market now with FlexLine, though we can use our work with First Data to scale that up for larger users,” Mudunuri said.
