Digital Wallets Steal the Flow as Disbursements Bypass Bank Accounts

Picture this: a late-night delivery worker tapping a button on their phone at the end of their shift to cash out instantly.

Easy to picture, right? It’s a familiar scene, one that plays out millions of times a week. But what is happening is this: that money isn’t all being cashed out to a bank, but frequently to a digital wallet or other account.

The result is a steady river of funds flowing away from the very banks that often initiate the payments.

According to PYMNTS Intelligence in collaboration with Ingo Payments, every year U.S. banks and businesses collectively leave $8.2 billion on the table as 71% of disbursements from gig-worker wages to rebates and insurance payouts flow to accounts outside their own networks.

The data suggests that’s a missed strategic opportunity. When funds stay within the sender’s network, the originating bank gains recurring engagement, better data and more cross-sell potential, while the recipient enjoys faster, more seamless access to cash.

Own the payout, own the customer.

The report estimates that converting just 20% of out-of-network recipients into in-network account holders would deliver an additional $1.6 billion in monetization opportunities each year, on average.

Turning Payouts Into a Growth Engine

For decades, disbursement functions were treated as back-office processes, often outsourced or routed through legacy payment rails. The rise of real-time settlement, digital wallets and embedded-finance platforms is changing the equation. A payment that reaches the receiver instantly, in an account tied to the sending institution, is no longer a mere transfer of money; it becomes the entry point to a longer-term financial relationship.

The shift toward seeing payouts as a loyalty engine is being driven by the industries with the heaviest transaction volumes — marketplaces, wholesale trade, hospitality and gig-economy platforms. These sectors collectively push millions of payments to workers, vendors and customers every month.

The operational cost of those payouts is significant. Wholesale traders in the PYMNTS survey reported average disbursement-related expenses of $1.9 million per year, while marketplaces, gaming platforms, and property-management companies also face seven-figure annual payout costs. These expenses encompass not just transaction fees but also the reconciliation, compliance and customer-service burdens that accompany payments moving across multiple external institutions.

Read the report: From One-Way Payouts to Two-Way Loyalty: Turning Disbursements Into Long-Term Customer Relationships

By issuing payouts through their own branded cards, virtual accounts or wallets, these companies can keep more of the value chain under their own control. Funds arrive faster for recipients; businesses gain better visibility and data on how those funds are used; and the institution providing the payout infrastructure benefits from deeper customer engagement.

This virtuous circle is why 87% of platform businesses in the study say they are highly interested in paying workers through their own networks, and why 62% of financial institutions say they want to capture more receiver accounts.

The payoff is not limited to direct revenue from transaction fees or float. Perhaps the most strategic benefit is the data dividend.

When payouts flow through external banks, the originating institution often loses sight of how the funds are spent, how long they remain on deposit, and what other financial needs the recipient might have. In-network payouts keep that data within the originating institution’s systems, enabling richer behavioral insights and more tailored product offers.

The study found that customer engagement and loyalty ranked as the most commonly cited benefit of retaining disbursements in-house, named by 64% of financial institutions, ahead of even faster funds availability or higher interchange revenue. In a marketplace where customer acquisition costs continue to rise, that data-driven ability to deepen relationships may prove the most durable source of competitive advantage.

In a competitive landscape where the edges between banking, commerce and platforms are blurring, the humble payout may prove to be the connective thread that determines who truly owns the customer relationship.