Payments fintech Highline announced that it has extended its partnership with employment data platform Argyle to extract payments from direct deposit rather than checking or savings accounts.

The platform’s APIs will help lenders — particularly those offering unsecured loans — receive payments more reliably while expanding credit approvals. The fintech aims to provide users with a “non-predatory” option for small-dollar loans, Highline co-founder and Chief Executive Geoff Brown told Bank Automation News.

“[Argyle] solved that access-to-income side of the equation by […] managing direct deposit settings,” Brown said. “So [Argyle] was built into our product from the start to solve that problem so that we can focus our efforts on our core skills, which are really the flow of payments that come from there.”

The partnership extension has been in the works for the past year, with Highline looking to build out its previous Argyle integration and enable the core payments functionality.

Automating upstream from income

The solution is part of a trend: Similar platforms introduced within the last year include digital wallet solution DailyPay and early payday deposits system Current, which enables access to earned wages before payday for users.

The Highline platform has been fully automated since its February launch with the ability to connect to and validate an income source, begin routing funds, and schedule where the funds will be made, Brown said.

“We’re automating a different way upstream from income, because that can be made far more reliable,” Brown told BAN. “As long as someone’s at their job and getting paid for regular paycheck, it becomes more like your health care premium or your 401k.”

Bank Automation Summit Fall 2022, taking place Sept. 19-20 in Seattle, is a crucial event on automation and automation technology in banking.  Learn more and register for Bank Automation Summit Fall 2022.