Financial institutions across the country are grappling with a familiar challenge: how to grow deposits, deepen customer relationships, and reach new households in an increasingly competitive market. For many banks, the workplace represents one of the most promising, yet still underutilized, channels to do just that.
When workplace banking efforts succeed, they do so because they meet employees with products that address real financial needs. Increasingly, that need is emergency savings. A simple, liquid tool that helps workers manage short-term financial shocks while building long-term financial stability.
Commonwealth’s partnership with Truist Bank, as part of BlackRock’s Emergency Savings Initiative (ESI), demonstrates that well-designed emergency savings programs are a practical and effective strategy for acquiring new customers, deepening customer relationships, and reducing financial vulnerability. The workplace is still one of the most powerful growth levers banks have, but only if emergency savings is the centerpiece. When banks lead with emergency savings instead of checking, adoption looks entirely different. Truist’s recent experience with The Fresh Market (TFM) proves this: a savings-first solution drove immediate engagement, meaningful deposit growth, and opened the door to deeper product relationships.
Emergency Savings Meet Growing Workforce Demand
Research consistently demonstrates a need, a willingness, and a desire from employees and employers for emergency savings programs. Banking institutions are uniquely positioned to not only offer these programs but unlock a host of complementary tools to support workers financially.
Seven out of 10 employees say they are under financial pressure that negatively impacts their work. For those living paycheck to paycheck, this financial stress is often outsized—undermining productivity, morale, and performance. 70% of workers have also expressed interest in emergency savings accounts available through their employers.
Emergency savings accounts have gained traction with employers too as costly loans and hardship withdrawals can put pressure on retirement benefits. One-third of organizations currently offer an emergency savings benefit, including Amazon and Delta, and 40% indicate they want to offer emergency savings accounts in the future. This convergence—high employee need + employer demand—creates an opening for banks to reintroduce the workplace channel with a modernized approach.
Building A Bridge Between Banks and Employers
Savings innovations provide the product-market fit absent in earlier workplace efforts. Like many banks, Truist first offered its own financial education solution—with less-than-ideal uptake—until we pivoted our focus to emergency savings.
Truist took a direct, in-person approach. Bank staff met Fresh Market team members in-store, enrolled them in emergency savings with direct deposit on the spot, and built immediate trust through a product that solved a real problem.
The results were clear:
- 95% of one-on-one, in-store meetings between bank staff and employees resulted in new savings accounts,
- 35% of meetings led to new checking accounts,
- $300,000+ in gross savings deposits, and
- More than half of employees who scheduled a one-on-one meeting with bank staff scheduled follow-ups for credit cards, debt consolidation, loans, and mortgages.
Those conversion rates are nearly unheard of in traditional workplace banking programs. This is the workplace channel working as intended: savings building trust, and trust driving product adoption.
The key to unlocking this opportunity? Meeting employees where they are, both physically and financially, with what they need—small dollar savings solutions. Another key to securing buy-in for workplace emergency savings is to operate with the mindset of a benefits provider. Consider the employer’s pain points. What is going to demonstrate value from their perspective? Employers want high-impact, well embraced solutions that address their workers’ concerns and demonstrate a return on investment. We know employers are motivated to support their workers’ financial well-being—emergency savings is the wedge that makes the rest of the banking suite stick.
The Moment Is Now
There’s every reason to believe more employers will continue to adopt emergency savings solutions. The strong ROI of workplace savings programs suggest they will soon become a foundational part of employers’ financial wellness strategies. Emergency savings provisions in the SECURE 2.0 Act signal growing policy recognition that emergency savings is essential financial infrastructure. Potential future policy provisions may enable seamless automatic enrollment with payroll integration for bank-sponsored emergency savings accounts. Partnering with employers, banks can capitalize on this potential regulatory shift.
To succeed in workplace banking today, banks should:
- Treat workplace financial wellness as a customer acquisition engine—not just a social impact initiative
- Lead with emergency savings, and integrate checking, credit, and lending as follow-ons
- Pair strong savings products with targeted marketing and remote account-opening tools
- Make implementation easy for employers through streamlined communications and ongoing support
By centering emergency savings in workplace strategies, banks can support financial resilience for millions of workers, strengthen employer partnerships, increase deposits and customer lifetime value, and build deeper, more durable relationships with households and communities.
Emergency savings is more than a benefit, it’s the gateway to stronger customer relationships and business growth. And it isn’t just good for workers—it’s the smartest customer-acquisition strategy banks aren’t using yet.
About BlackRock’s Emergency Savings Initiative
Guided by BlackRock’s purpose to help more and more people experience financial well-being, The BlackRock Foundation funds and partners with organizations that strengthen financial security by helping people earn, save and invest—earlier, more often and for their futures. BlackRock’s Emergency Savings Initiative is made possible through philanthropic support from The BlackRock Foundation. The initiative brings together partner companies and nonprofit financial health experts to make saving easier and more accessible for people living on low and moderate incomes. For more information, visit: blackrock.com/corporate/aboutus/social-impact