June 2024 Summaries

Plaid, a financial technology company, has announced new data and insights solutions designed to improve onboarding, underwriting, payments, and fraud and risk mitigation at its annual customer conference, Plaid Effects. The company's network connects consumers and financial institutions with thousands of digital financial apps and services, enabling it to provide unique data and insights that don't exist anywhere else today. Among the key announcements are: 1. Plaid Layer: A new platform for secure, instant financial experiences across onboarding, lending, payments, and more. Companies like Possible Finance and Empower are now live with Layer and seeing meaningful conversion improvements. 2. Consumer Report under Plaid’s new consumer reporting agency, Plaid Check: Brings real-time, actionable cash flow data along with network-powered credit risk insights to mainstream lending. Early customers include enterprises like H&R Block and lenders like Oportun. 3. Bank account insights for fraud prevention during onboarding: Added bank account insights, providing companies with 40+ insights about the linked account to determine the risk of downstream fraud. This can be used at the time of onboarding, helping to prevent fraud before losses occur. 4. Modular experiences designed to bring pay by bank to your checkout: Businesses can take advantage of Plaid’s modular pay-by-bank components, which are helping lower payments cost by 40%.

Plaid has introduced a new platform called Layer, designed to provide secure, instant financial experiences for users. The platform aims to meet modern consumer expectations by transforming how people use financial services, starting with onboarding. Layer helps satisfy KYC requirements and link bank accounts, reducing the time it takes for someone to sign up for an app by nearly 90%. Companies like Possible Finance and Empower are already seeing improved user experiences and conversion improvements. The platform is built with high security measures and can be customized to meet unique onboarding needs of different companies. Layer fundamentally reimagines how people interact with financial services, starting with onboarding on iOS, Android, and desktop.

Plaid is enhancing its product offerings with a focus on improving the user experience in digital finance apps and services. The company has introduced new features to Link, such as a simple and secure returning user experience that allows consumers to connect their accounts more quickly while maintaining high-security standards. Additionally, businesses can now pre-load the Link experience for instant access, and Hosted Link offers a low-code solution for developers and companies looking to build with Plaid. These updates aim to provide better consumer experiences and increase engagement for businesses in the evolving digital finance landscape.

Plaid introduces "Consumer Report," a new solution that provides businesses with real-time, actionable cash flow data along with credit risk insights through Plaid Check, their consumer reporting agency (CRA). The Consumer Report leverages Plaid's expertise in bank account connectivity and offers lenders, property managers, and buy now pay later providers real-time visibility into a borrower's finances. By sharing their cash flow data, consumers can provide a more complete story of their financial situation, which is increasingly important as 83% of surveyed lending professionals are open to using new forms of credit data. The Consumer Report includes comprehensive cash flow data, income insights for ability-to-pay verification, and default risk predictions based on deposit account transaction data.