Verified income marks a step away from using credit history to make decisions, and instead, uses live financial information from an applicants’ bank statements to provide accurate and up to date earnings to determine risk. This benefits both lenders and customers by significantly speeding up decisions and removing many of the pains associated with credit history based applications.

The announcement coincides with LendIt Europe 2017, one of Europe’s largest financial services conferences which is aimed specifically at organisations in marketplace lending.

The ID Co.’s technology means for the first time lenders, such as retail banks and mortgage companies, can quickly understand the true ‘verified income’ of an applicant to assess their creditworthiness. As a component of the DirectID platform, the verified income feature can calculate the net income of an applicant across multiple bank accounts and income sources to help determine whether a loan is affordable.

Commenting on the release of this new technology James Varga, chief executive of The ID Co., said:
“Data is the new oil and banking data is simply the best type of oil. One of the most basic questions that consumers have to answer and prove when taking out a loan, mortgage or other credit product is their income. The affordability question is the first that any lender wants to know the answer to.

“By using verified income, DirectID makes this process seamless for both for the consumer and the business. The verification process is extremely fast; an applicant’s income can be authenticated in seconds. Unlike credit reference agencies who struggle to do this with any kind of accuracy, DirectID is able to do so very easily as it uses data straight from consumers bank accounts.”

DirectID’s verified income aligns to the requirements of PSD2, the second EU Payment Services Directive. It allows businesses to display all the accounts of a consumer in one place. The directive will be transposed into national law in the UK in January next year.