Highnote, a platform for issuing, acquiring, credit, money movement, and real-time ledgering, announced that Ferry, a provider of technology for hospitality payments, has expanded its partnership to implement Highnote Instant Payments. This new capability allows large restaurant groups to provide automated, same-day payouts of tips and wages directly to employees.
Ferry’s solution addresses a challenge in the hospitality sector: delayed and fragmented tip and wage payouts. By integrating Highnote Instant Payments into restaurant workflows, Ferry automates complex tip-out calculations, supports IRS reporting compliance, and facilitates near real-time deposit of earnings to employee debit cards or linked accounts. This aims to provide faster access to earned tips and wages, enhance cash-flow visibility for managers, and support employee retention for restaurants.
Trista Kempa, Co-Founder and COO of Ferry, stated, “Ferry is focused on giving restaurants a faster and more reliable way to pay their teams. Highnote’s Instant Payments capability makes it possible for us to offer immediate, compliant payouts that meaningfully improve the experience for both operators and employees.”
Highnote Instant Payments enables businesses to send funds in near real time from Highnote-issued cards to eligible external debit and prepaid cards. The system is built into Highnote’s unified product stack, which combines issuing, acquiring, and ledgering in a single platform. This architecture is designed to provide visibility, compliance, and orchestration from funding to settlement, assisting businesses in expediting money movement across various channels.
Kin Kee, CTO of Highnote, remarked, “Instant Payments represents the next evolution of our platform. We built Highnote to unify every aspect of payments, from issuing and acquiring to money movement. Ferry’s implementation proves what’s possible when instant disbursement, programmable ledgering, and intelligent orchestration come together in one system. It is a milestone that sets the pace for where the industry is headed.”
The expanded partnership builds on Ferry’s existing use of Highnote’s issuing product, now also powering payroll cards and flexible disbursements. Ferry’s initial deployment is projected to process over $200 million in annual tip and wage payouts through Highnote, with plans for additional use cases as Ferry expands within the hospitality sector.
Instant Payments is part of Highnote’s broader Money Movement framework, which is designed as a unified system to orchestrate funds movement across multiple rails, including cards, ACH, RTP, and future capabilities such as FedNow and global disbursements. The platform aims to optimize each transfer for speed, cost, and success rate, offering businesses control and transparency for each transaction.
Mark Reeves, Head of Money Movement Sales at Highnote, commented, “Both businesses and consumers now expect funds to move instantly, securely, and with total transparency. Ferry’s rollout shows how our Instant Payments capability transforms payout speed and efficiency while reinforcing why unification, not point-solution vendor integrations, is the future of payments.”
Highnote, headquartered in San Francisco, specializes in embedded finance solutions. Ferry, based in New York City, offers patented technology that integrates with POS and HCM systems to manage tip tracking, calculations, splitting, and cashless payouts. The Ferry Payroll Card, issued by Community Federal Savings Bank, member FDIC, pursuant to license to Visa U.
S.
A. Inc., provides financial benefits including ATM access, a Cash Back program, and earned wage access.
