Harnessing the Power of Instant and Permissioned Income and Employment Verification

by Scott Hamlin 3 min read September 25, 2023

In today’s age, where speed and convenience are paramount, lenders must transform their digital income verification experience to meet customer expectations. Leveraging the benefits of instant verification is crucial to delivering a seamless experience. However, there are situations where instant verification may not be available or unable to verify customers. This is where the value of incorporating user-permissioned verification into your workflow becomes evident.  

Let’s explore the advantages of using a combination of instant and permissioned verification and how they can synergistically enhance coverage, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and deliver an exceptional customer experience. 

Instant verification: The epitome of efficiency and experience 

Instant verification technology enables lenders to access real-time customer data, making it the pinnacle of verification efficiency. Its ability to deliver immediate insights facilitates quick decision-making, ensuring a seamless and frictionless experience for lenders and customers. There are several benefits to streamlining your verification process, including:  

  • Speed and efficiency: Eliminate the time-consuming process of manually gathering and analyzing data to expedite loan approvals and reduce customer waiting times. 
  • Enhanced user experience: With real-time results, customers can complete their applications quickly and effortlessly, leading to increased satisfaction and higher conversion rates. 
  • Reduced risk: Assess applicant information promptly, maintaining the security and integrity of lending processes. 

Permissioned verification: Expanding coverage and engaging customers 

While instant verification technology offers numerous advantages, it may not always be available or suitable for every customer. This is where permissioned verification plays a vital role. By integrating permissioned verification into the verification workflow, lenders can expand coverage and keep customers engaged in a digital channel, reducing abandonment rates. The benefits of leveraging permissioned verification include: 

  • Convenience and speed: By granting permissioned access, customers avoid the hassle of uploading or submitting documents manually. This saves time and effort, resulting in a faster verification process. 
  • Increased coverage and reduced abandonment: Permissioned verification ensures a higher coverage rate by minimizing the potential for customer abandonment during the application process. Since the information is retrieved seamlessly, customers are more likely to complete the application without frustration. 
  • Privacy and control: Customers retain control over their data by explicitly granting permission for access. This enhances transparency and empowers individuals to manage their financial information securely. 

Creating a verification “waterfall” for optimal results 

To harness the combined power of instant and permissioned verification, lenders can establish a verification “waterfall” approach. This approach involves a cascading verification process where instant verification is the first step, followed by permissioned verification if instant verification is not available or unable to verify the customer.

                                             Example of Experian Verify’s automated verification waterfall. 

There are numerous advantages to adopting a “waterfall” approach, including:  

  • Cost efficiency: Lenders who prioritize instant verification save on operational costs associated with manual verification processes. The seamless transition to permissioned verification reduces the need for manual intervention, minimizing expenses and improving efficiency. 
  • Improved verification success rate: A verification waterfall ensures that alternative verification methods are readily available if the initial instant verification is unsuccessful. This increases the overall success rate of verifying customer data and reduces the likelihood of losing potential borrowers. 
  • Enhanced customer experience: The combination of instant and permissioned verification creates a streamlined and frictionless customer experience. Customers can progress seamlessly through the verification process, reducing frustration and increasing satisfaction levels. 

Propelling your business forward 

In the dynamic landscape of lending, a combination of instant and permissioned verification technologies provides significant value to lenders and customers. While instant verification delivers unparalleled efficiency and experience, incorporating permissioned verification ensures expanded coverage, reduced abandonment rates, and a seamless digital journey for customers. By implementing a verification “waterfall” approach, lenders can optimize verification processes, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and ultimately deliver an exceptional customer experience. 

Learn more about our solutions The advantages of instant and permissioned verification

*This article leverages/includes content created by an AI language model and is intended to provide general information.

Related Posts

What Is a Third-Party Breach? How to Prepare for and Respond to Vendor Incidents

Learn what a third-party breach is and steps to prepare, contain risk, and support affected customers. Read more!

November 9, 2026 by Laura Burrows
Mortgage Underwriting Moves from Modernization Talk to Action 

Mortgage underwriting is entering a new phase. In a recent conversation with HousingWire’s Allison LaForgia, Michele Bodda, Group President of Experian Housing, Verification Solutions, and Employer Services, discussed how modern credit scores, alternative data and verification tools are changing how lenders evaluate borrowers.  Lenders can now judge modernization by its results, Bodda said. “Now we’re actually letting more modern scores get into underwriting to help price loans and go all the way through to securitization,” she told HousingWire. “We’re letting the scores and the data actually speak for itself instead of just talking about it.”  The Right Data at the Right Time  Modernizing underwriting means providing useful information at the right stage, rather than giving lenders everything at once. “You don’t need everything all at once. You don’t need everything on initial pull,” Bodda said.  Alternative data, such as rental payments and buy now, pay later activity, can help show how consumers manage obligations, especially those with thinner credit files. A thin credit file does not necessarily mean someone has a thin financial life.  “It’s our responsibility as one of the primary data providers to make sure we can make all of that available, so that we’re best representing the consumer,” Bodda said. A fuller view of data may help lenders identify creditworthy applicants who might otherwise be difficult to assess.  Simplifying Verification and Reducing Friction  Bodda also shared how Experian is making credit information more easily accessible and reducing unnecessary costs during the originations process, explaining that new enhancements to Experian’s Power Profile Plus allow lenders to pull credit data at the start of underwriting and request another score later without repurchasing the data.  “You can pull it later and not pay for the credit data again,” Bodda said.   Experian is also investing in income and employment verification, including through a new partnership with Workday. Bodda explained that Experian will continue to focus on process improvement, competition and innovation across the mortgage ecosystem.  A Broader Path to Homeownership  As consumer expectations and underwriting capabilities evolve, borrowers want a process that reflects their financial lives, while lenders seek greater efficiency. Modern scores, relevant data, and streamlined verification can help lenders assess applications with more context—and may help more people pursue homeownership.  “If we as an industry can open this up and bring more people into the process, then we’re going to thrive,” Bodda said in the interview.   Watch the interview and hear all of Michele’s insights, and more here.  

November 6, 2026 by Caroline Basile
How to Deliver Data-Driven Customer Experiences

A data-driven credit customer experience offers personalization and low friction — it's a win-win for consumers and businesses.

November 5, 2026 by Zohreen Ismail

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Enter your name and email for the latest updates.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Don't miss out on the latest industry trends and insights!
Subscribe