Optimization
Conor Hendershot

Conor Hendershot

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Better Finance Workflows Start With Streaming Data

Reduce Friction, Optimize Workflows With Continuous Data Access & Webhooks

When it comes to credit decisioning, having access to employment data—information like your users’ work status, paystubs, and gross and net income—is the gold standard. That said, employment data providers are not created equal. One of the key differences among them is continuity of access.

Continuous is best

With Argyle, continuous access to employment data is par for the course and standard for all customers. That means, once your users give you permission to access their payroll records (a two-click process that’s as easy as entering a username and password), you receive an ongoing stream of real-time data that you can use to verify employment and income, track earnings fluctuations, inform underwriting decisions, establish automatic repayment plans, fund bank accounts, conduct cross-sell/upsell, and more.

Uninterrupted benefits

The advantages of continuous data access are multifold:

  • Less friction. Because you have visibility into customers’ employment data whenever you need it, you don’t have to go back to them for more information every time you need to update your records. That translates to one customer touchpoint instead of many and a better experience for all parties.

  • Time savings. Fewer customer touch points means less back and forth, which ultimately shaves days off your workflow. Learn how Stilt optimized workflows and reduced their borrower approval process from 3 days to 30 minutes with continuous data access.Higher fidelity data. You can be sure the information you are referencing to make critical business decisions is always up to the minute. 

  • Reduced costs. If you have been paying for third-party employment data reports, continuous access removes the need to pull (and pay for) additional reports on a single customer.

Continuous data monitoring

Argyle’s continuous data access also permits continuous data monitoring, so you can stay abreast of any changes to customer information like income fluctuations, changes in work status, and disruptions to payment-linked lending or direct deposit agreements with real-time data. To make it easy, Argyle utilizes webhook technology, which you can customize to alert you of changes to the data fields most pertinent to your business and workflows.

Real-world application: mortgage originations

One practical use case for continuous data access is mortgage originations. The typical mortgage closing cycle is weeks to months long, and borrowers’ income and employment information frequently needs to be refreshed in that time. As a result, standard employment and income verification protocols require borrowers to:

  • Enter their employment history.

  • Find, download, and upload their W-2 and recent paystubs.

  • Confirm employment details and contact information as their application enters decisioning.

  • Provide another paystub toward closing, and reverify employment if their original verification has expired.

Meanwhile, lenders have to coordinate all of these steps and chase down information, entailing a lot of unnecessary back and forth—all of which adds time and cost to the mortgage process. 

But with Argyle, all of that is eliminated. Borrowers simply login into their employer or payroll platform once, and lenders have all of the real-time data they need to see their application through closing.

Real-world application: superior servicing

Some lenders, for example, set webhooks to alert them if a customer loses a job or income source. In turn, the lender has the information they need to proactively reach out and offer a loan extension or modified repayment terms to accommodate the customer’s new employment situation. Not only does this represent an opportunity to deliver exemplary customer service, it also helps lenders prevent loans from going into default.

Banks also use webhooks to support customer service. One Argyle customer, Better Financial, receives notification if a user begins missing work or losing pay, so they can react accordingly.

“We then send a push notification to the user,” said Better Financial co-founder Kaushik Tiwari. “Like, ‘We noticed a drop in income last week. What happened?’ Based on the information they provide, we offer a cash advance or initiate an insurance claim.”

Recognizing when someone might be in distress allows Better Financial to extend help when users need it most, which is central to their mission to provide users with a financial safety net in times of hardship.

Real-world application: paycheck-linked lending and account funding

Lenders who rely on paycheck-linked loan repayments use webhooks from Argyle to ensure compliance with any agreed-upon wage allocation terms. If a user consented to sending a certain dollar amount from their paycheck to their lender each month, and suddenly those autopayments are disrupted, the lender is notified right away and can take steps to mitigate the problem.

The same webhook is used by banks to identify disruptions to the direct deposits funding their users’ accounts.

Real-world application: assessing loan portfolio health

Continuous access and webhook notifications can also be leveraged by lenders who want a holistic picture of the health of their loan portfolio. In tracking the income fluctuations and employment statuses of all of your borrowers, you can be cognizant of trends that could impact your business, allowing you to optimize workflows and respond accordingly and in a timely fashion.

The takeaway

Continuous employment data access coupled with data-monitoring webhook technology is a gamechanger for financial institutions who want to improve user experience while serving their own bottom line. Contact us to learn how ongoing, real-time data can transform the way you do business.