Plaid Adds Products, Partnerships Aimed at Serving Enterprise Customers

Plaid has been rolling out new products and partnerships in recent months, offering additional resources to a broader range of customers, including enterprises.

For example, the firm rolled out its new credit underwriting solution, Consumer Report, in early June, saying that it brings bank account-level data to client firms so that the data can be used in those firms’ models.

Early clients of Consumer Report include online lenders like Oportun (which lends to individuals with little or no credit history) and about a dozen other firms.

The introduction of that offering followed the 2023 launch by Plaid of its own Consumer Reporting Agency, said to be designed to build solutions for the FinTech’s own enterprise customers “who want ready-made credit risk insights from consumer-permissioned cash flow data.”

In March, Plaid partnered with Sandbox Banking to offer automated identity verification solutions for the financial services industry.

The collaboration brings together banking solutions from Sandbox Banking and identity verification technology from Plaid, offering financial institutions a comprehensive suite of tools for enhancing customer or member engagement, mitigating risks and fortifying account security.

“With consumers increasingly turning to digital solutions to manage their finances, it is critical that financial institutions are properly equipped to protect and maintain their customers,” Tamara Romanek, head of partnerships at Plaid, said when announcing the collaboration. “Partners like Sandbox Banking offer accessible innovation for financial institutions, which is a key element of open banking regulation.”

Plaid’s financial data network also helps power tools to combat rental fraud that were introduced by real estate software/data analytics provider RealPage.

By partnering with Plaid, RealPage aimed to equip its leasing and property management platforms to help its customers detect fraud earlier via “multifaceted verification across data, device, document and biometrics,” employing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), while streamlining tenant sign-up.

Plaid has also seen its merchant customers and financial institution clients finding new demand for pay by bank, Rahul Hampole, head of payments at Plaid, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in February.

“Businesses will be pushing more bank-linked payments where it makes sense for them from both a pricing and margin perspective — but also for ease of use,” Hampole said.