Metro Bank is the latest financial institution to enable its customers to benefit from their own bank statement data, which has been enabled through the Open Banking initiative. CreditLadder this year became the first in the private rental sector to launch direct rent reading of a tenant's bank account.

Renters connect their bank to CreditLadder, which then uses read-only access via FCA-regulated service TrueLayer to read and report their rent to Experian. The aim is to help CreditLadder tenants to gain access to better financial deals and help them step on to the property ladder.

“A quiet revolution is taking place within the world of personal finance as more and more banks enable their customers to allow us to report their rent to the UK’s leading credit reference agency, ” says CreditLadder CEO Sheraz Dar.

“Having now received HM Treasury support through its Rent Recognition Challenge, this is going to make a huge difference to the creditworthiness of millions of people as rent reporting becomes more widespread.

“As the largest and first company in the UK to offer rent reporting to tenants, we have been working hard to spread the word that those who pay rent are now on the same level playing field as those who pay their mortgages on time.”

Other banks whose customers can report their rent through CreditLadder include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Halifax, NatWest, RBS, Santander, Nationwide, The Co-operative bank, First Direct, TSB and Bank of Scotland plus, most recently, challenger banks Monzo and Starling.