Plaid's August 2025 product updates prioritize speed and accuracy, aiming to expedite user onboarding, enhance identity verification, and improve credit decision-making. Key improvements include expanded Instant Auth coverage, enabling faster account connections across more financial institutions, and enhanced access to verified identity data, now supporting over 450 additional institutions. The company has refined its income insights in the Consumer Report for better accuracy in income categorization, historical averages, and forecasts. Fraud prevention is strengthened with DMV-backed identity verification, and the onboarding process is streamlined with the expanded Layer feature, allowing instant identity and account linking. Plaid also introduced a design refresh for Link, modernizing the UI and adding progress bars to improve user experience and conversion rates. Enhanced OAuth registration aims to help new customers access top institutions faster by displaying real-time statuses and requirements.