The Multiplier Effect of Embedded Instant Payments for Software Businesses

In an era where expectations for time-to-money are at an all-time high and seamless financial experiences are the default, embedded instant payments are no longer a “nice to have” – they’re becoming a major differentiator driving the creation of enterprise value. For Vertical SaaS companies, Payroll providers, Investing platforms, and other fintech-adjacent or finance-enabled software businesses, the ROI of adding instant disbursement capabilities is substantial, ranging from 2x to 20x! Here are key data points, case studies, and strategic frameworks to help your business leverage the multiplier effect of instant payments.

What do we mean by instant and embedded payments?

These are payment features built into a software platform that allow funds to move quickly, ideally immediately or near-immediately, between parties (e.g. from platform → user, employee, or vendor). Key rails and technologies in the United States include:

• Visa Direct / Mastercard Move (aka Push-to-Card): move money to or from eligible Visa/Mastercard debit/prepaid cards in real-time.
• RTP® (The Clearing House’s Real-Time Payments network): 24/7/365 instant payments to bank accounts, with rich messaging.
• FedNow® (Federal Reserve Service): another real-time bank payments rail, increasingly important for banks and credit unions.
• Faster Traditional Rails (Same-day ACH, wires): remain important especially for larger or less urgent flows, or where RTP or FedNow are not available to the bank account.

Each payment rail has trade-offs (cost, reach, speed, risk), but having access to multiple rails (a “multi-rail strategy”) allows platforms to optimize for different use cases, cost structures, and user expectations and needs. Key to any instant payments strategy is “meeting the customer where they are” to their most convenient and compatible payment instrument.

To realize full ROI, software businesses should support more than one payment rail. Here’s how they compare, and how combinations can multiply value.

Putting these together means you can:

• Use Visa Direct / Mastercard Move / Push-to-Card for the fastest payouts or deposits.
• Use RTP / FedNow for other instant bank account disbursements (e.g., payroll, vendor settlements), typically for B2B payments.
• Use ACH / wires as backup or for large, non-urgent flows.

Why Now is the Moment

Visa Direct has massively scaled: nearly 10B transactions in 2024, endpoints in the tens of billions, growing both domestic and cross-border reach.

U.S rails are also evolving: RTP has been live for some time; FedNow launched (2023) and is adding participants. There is strong momentum among banks and fintechs toward multi-rail strategies.

Employee and customer expectations are shifting: fast access to funds is becoming the baseline, not a luxury, with almost half of all Americans having experienced instant payments. In tight labor markets, salary, payroll and wage access flexibility are features that matter.

Competitive risk: if you don’t offer fast payments or withdrawals, someone else will, and you risk being left behind.

Case Studies & Data from Visa

Visa Direct provides a number of published case studies and research findings that demonstrate the value that embedded instant payouts/disbursements can deliver.

• Wave: “Instant Payouts” for Small Business Owners
  • Wave integrated Visa Direct’s real-time push-to-card payments so small business owners could access funds faster.
  • Outcomes:
    • ~10,000 instant payouts/month; 20% higher retention rate among businesses using the Instant Payout feature.
    • Businesses expressed strong demand: 66% of surveyed SMBs were interested in receiving funds in real time.
• Forrester / Visa Direct TEI Study
  • The Total Economic Impact study examined the financial implications of businesses transitioning parts of their disbursement operations from traditional methods (checks, slow bank transfers) to real-time payout options.
  • Key numbers:
    • A business that absorbs the cost of real-time payouts could see ~ 256% ROI over three years.
    • A business that charges a 1% service fee for instant disbursements could see ~ 389% ROI over three years.
• Visa Direct Growth & Reach
  • Visa Direct transactions increased approximately sixfold from $1.6B in 2019 to $ 10B in 2024. Endpoints (cards, accounts, wallets) also served tripled (roughly from 3.5B to over 11B).
  • Visa Direct is now part of Visa’s broader Commercial & Money Movement Solutions (CMS) offering; the total market opportunity is massive. For example, ~$1.7 trillion in CMS volume in FY24, strong CAGR in net revenue in this segment.

Why This Matters for Vertical SaaS, Payroll, and Investing Platforms

Let’s break down the benefits specifically for those verticals; the multiplier effects aren’t just about user delight, they offer key levers for expanding your business with an immediate “20% rule” gain for each category:

The multiplier effect stems from flexibility: matching cost vs speed vs reach, reducing friction; you avoid bottlenecks, lowering customer support costs, and offering more features and premium differentiators with minimal additional incremental cost once rails are connected.

Quantifying the ROI / Multiplier

From the Visa Direct and Forrester case study data, we can model approximate ROI levers for a SaaS company or payroll/investing platform, adding instant disbursements. Here are some rough but illustrative numbers:

• Retention lift: As Wave shows, offering instant payouts yielded ~20% higher retention among those using the feature. If your SaaS has, say, 20% of customers who need disbursements, refunds, or payouts, that could raise overall retention by several points, which has a huge impact on lifetime value, CAC payback, etc.
• Revenue from premium fees: The Forrester study shows that charging a modest service fee (e.g., 1%) on instant disbursements can increase ROI significantly (from ~256% to ~389% over 3 years in their modeling).
• Cost savings: Reduced manual processing (fewer checks, less reissuing, fewer wires), reduced errors/dispute costs, less friction in cash flow, and less need for customer service remediation.
• Increased usage and engagement: Instant disbursements encourage more frequent usage (e.g., OnDeck users drawing more often), which can increase revenue (e.g., interest or fees) or platform stickiness.
• Competitive differentiation & acquisition: Being one of the few platforms offering true instant pay or instant withdrawal is a selling point. It can lower barriers for new customer acquisition.

If done well, the investment in engineering, compliance, and finance functions often pays for itself within a year, especially for companies with a nontrivial volume of disbursements. Pair that with a partner that enables instant payments easily and performs at scale and you can accelerate your “time to profit.”

Implementation Considerations & Risks

To realize the full value, there are challenges that software platforms must plan for:

• Compliance & fraud controls: Instant payments amplify risk: less time for review, more chance of misuse or error. Must build in good identity verification, limits, monitoring, reversals/returns.
• Issuer bank delays or policies: Even with real-time payments, funds availability ultimately depends on recipient bank or card issuer policies. Payments might reach the network fast, but availability could be delayed.
• Costs per transaction vs margin: Instant rails often come with higher per-transaction fees. Need to model when to absorb vs. when to pass on vs. when to route via cheaper rails.
• Rails integration complexity: Each rail (Visa Direct, RTP, FedNow) has its own requirements (participation, licensing, message formats, settlement rules). Building a multi-rail system is more complex but offers greater benefits.
• User experience & expectations: Communicate clearly when funds will arrive and any limitations. Avoid disappointment or mistrust if rails misbehave or policies delay availability.

What Software Leaders Should Do

If you lead a vertical SaaS, payroll, investing or fintech-adjacent platform, here are steps you can take to capture this ROI:

• Map your payout flows: how many users, how often, what delays exist, what pain points for recipients.
• Run cost-benefit models: for each rail (Visa Direct, RTP, FedNow, ACH), estimate cost per transaction, speed, likelihood of recipient having an eligible account/card, incremental customer satisfaction, retention, and fee revenue.
• Start with a use case or MVP: e.g., push-to-card for refunds or partner commissions, or RTP for vendor payments in specific geographies.
• Ensure fraud and compliance readiness: limits, monitoring, reversal capabilities, and clear disclosures.
• Build multi-rail support: don’t bet everything on a single rail. Use Visa Direct where applicable; use RTP / FedNow for bank account flows; fallback to ACH for less urgent or significant flows.
• Measure aggressively: retention lift, cost savings, margin from premium services, churn, customer satisfaction. Use that data to refine at scale.

As you evaluate partners that can help you embed instant payments, you should map the above planning to key questions when assessing each solution:

1. Which rails does the partner support? Having all options through a single integration allows you to adopt each payment type incrementally or in parallel.
2. Do you have to build logic for validating debit cards and accounts for compatibility to the respective networks, or does that come out of the box?
3. Where is the sponsor bank? Is it bring your own, or is it included? And how does underwriting work? The answer here can radically affect scope and timeline to launch.
4. What parts of the payments stack and adjacent workflows (finops, compliance, etc.) are in scope for the partner versus your integration? What’s included varies significantly across the industry, from simple gateways to vertically integrated payments platforms.

Conclusion

Embedded instant payments are more than a “nice add-on”—for many vertical SaaS, payroll, and investing platforms, they represent a multiplier effect: driving retention, enabling premium pricing, reducing operational costs, and differentiating in a crowded market. With Visa Direct’s case studies, the rise of RTP and FedNow, and evolving consumer expectations, platforms that lean into instant payments now are likely to see outsized returns.

In many cases, push-to-card + RTP/FedNow, where available, offers a strong one-two punch. If you’re considering faster disbursement rails but unsure which to prioritize, let’s chat!