| | April 20218CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONT he COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us in ways we hadn't initially thought were possible; from the minor inconveniences of not being able to find toilet paper or yeast for that "pandemic sourdough" trend you caught wind of on social media, to more meaningful impacts from "Stay at Home" orders and the limits placed on our everyday lifestyles and activities. But none of that compares to the anxiety we've all felt trying to figure out how to navigate this experience while keeping yourself and your loved ones safe, or the grief and sadness from losing someone close to you.In the slip-stream of the pandemic, perhaps you now have a mass amount of customer data that can help you quantify impact and maybe get a sense of where this is all heading next. Deposits, Payroll, Stimulus, and Benefits PaymentsFor a fair number of American consumers, there seemed to be plenty of deposit transaction activity occurring during the pandemic. If you weren't impacted by furloughs or considered an "essential business," then your payroll either stayed the same or was slightly reduced. Those who were unfortunately impacted by a job loss or payroll cut may have qualified for unemployment, and for a period of time, might have been supported by emergency government programs which paid an additional $600 weekly as part of the CARES Act.Additionally, the United States Treasury Department delivered 159 million Economic Impact Payments valued at over 267 billion dollars to eligible Americans in just a few short months. While not perfect, the speed of this program was partly possible by sending 120 million payments directly into accounts via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment network,35 million sent out as paper checks, and 4 million payments in the last round as prepaid debit cards. Eligible small businesses were allowed economic assistance through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which helped keep payroll flowing to employees and reduced unemployment. Perhaps an unintended consequence of these programs has been a significant bump in personal savings, which, to be fair, was a trend also fueled by the impact of Stay at Home orders and other factors that placed some limitations on our ability to spend disposable income. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, the personal savings rate of the average American right before the pandemic was 12.6 percent in February and peaked to 32.2 percent in April before falling to a still elevated rate of 17.8 percent in July.By Christopher Danvers, Vice President of Payments & Digital Services, American Airlines Federal Credit UnionPANDEMIC PAYMENTS­PAYCHECKS, PROGRAMS, AND PIVOTSChristopher Danvers
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