San Diego start-up Employee Loan Solutions is working with St. Paul-based Sunrise Banks to help workers who live paycheck to paycheck take out small-dollar loans. Their TrueConnect program offers short-term loans — ones that carry a high interest rate but are still cheaper than typical payday loans. Sunrise Banks was the first company to offer TrueConnect loans to its own employees. It conducted a yearlong trial starting in late 2013 at the request of federal bank regulators, who then approved the program. "Like any employer, we think we pay our employees well, so why would they need this product?" bank President Nichol Beckstrand said. "What we found is a lot of people need it."