Built as part of a suite of forthcoming products under the Plaid for Payroll brand, Plaid Income expands consumer-permissioned data access to include salary information from employers.

"The ability to verify employment status, income, and ability to pay is crucial to nearly every loan application," states the vendor. "But historically, proving these things has been unduly burdensome for applicants. They often need to retrieve and share multiple documents, which a lender must process and review. For the applicant, this can lead to frustration, stress, and uncertainty."

Plaid currently supports real-time payroll authentication for over 250,000 of the largest employers in the United States — including nearly 80% of the Fortune 100.

The firm is also developing credential-less authentication capabilities with leading payroll providers, including ADP.

Meraj Mohammad, VP ADP Ventures, says: “ADP and Plaid are actively working towards a partnership around consumer-permissioned payroll data that will enable consumers' credential-less access to their payroll details using ADP's API."

Currently in beta testing, Plaid Income is designed to enable users to both connect their employer or payroll provider account or directly upload documents including paystubs, W2s, and supported types of 1099s.

Jake Ford, product owner, Veterans United Home Loans is one of the early beta testers. “We’re always looking for ways to improve, streamline, and digitize the lending experience for our customers," he says. "Plaid’s consumer-permissioned Income product helps reduce paperwork and overall closing times for borrowers, while improving efficiency and information accuracy for our lending teams.”

In a blog post previewing the product, Plaid states: "We believe payroll data is the next frontier in fintech and open finance. Access to payroll data has tremendous potential to expand financial opportunity and help people lead healthier financial lives."