Experian introduces Cashflow Data Bureau to power the next generation of underwriting

Source: Experian

Experian, a global leader in data and technology, has announced Experian Cashflow Data Bureau, Inc. The new consumer reporting agency (CRA) operates under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), enabling financial institutions to leverage consumer-permissioned cash flow insights at scale to help support more informed underwriting decisions and responsibly expand access to credit.

Experian Cashflow Data Bureau was unveiled to hundreds of business leaders during Experian’s annual Vision conference in San Antonio.

The launch comes as nearly one in five consumers lacks access to or has damaged credit and Experian’s research shows 60% of consumers who’ve previously been denied credit, or received less favorable terms than expected, believe the outcome would’ve been different if lenders had considered their recent income and banking activity alongside their credit history.

When cash flow insights are paired with credit data, Experian’s analysis shows a predictive performance increase of up to 40%. At the same time, these insights can help lenders increase approvals by up to 25% without adjusting their risk tolerance.

Driving industry adoption of cash flow insights

While financial institutions have expressed interest in leveraging banking information to gain a more complete view of consumer financial health, lenders have highlighted a need for a single, trusted provider to help simplify and operationalize the use of these insights.

Experian Cashflow Data Bureau establishes Experian as the only provider to deliver an end-to-end cash flow decisioning ecosystem backed by decades of credit, consumer reporting and analytics expertise. From consumer-permissioned bank account data aggregation and report generation to analytics, scoring and decision-ready insights, Experian Cashflow Data Bureau helps financial institutions adopt and integrate cash flow insights into decisions through a single, trusted provider.

“We’ve spent decades building the trusted data, analytics, technology and expertise financial institutions depend on every day,” said Jeff Softley, chief executive officer of Experian North America.

“With Experian Cashflow Data Bureau, we’re applying that experience to cash flow and making it easier for our clients to adopt these insights with confidence and at scale. By helping lenders understand a more complete picture of consumers’ financial lives, we can power more-informed decisions and ultimately help more consumers access the financial products and services they need, when they need them.”

Experian’s cash flow ecosystem

Experian Cashflow Data Bureau serves as the enabling foundation for Experian’s suite of cash flow solutions, which includes:

• Consumer consent and connectivity enables consumers to securely connect and permission access to their bank accounts through Experian when applying for credit.
• Cash flow consumer report organizes, categorizes and aggregates consumer-permissioned bank account transaction and balance information into a standardized consumer report that’s regulated by the FCRA, giving lenders a consistent foundation for incorporating cash flow information into lending decisions.
• Cashflow Categories converts consumer-permissioned bank account transaction data into standardized, decision-ready intelligence using dynamic machine learning models that process tens of millions of transactions each day.
• Cashflow Attributes and Cashflow Score transform categorized bank account transaction and balance data into predictive insights that help lenders better understand a consumer’s financial capacity. Through Experian Activate, Cashflow Attributes can also help participating lenders connect consumers with new financial offers.
• Credit and Cashflow Score is the industry’s first score that will combine consumer-permissioned cash flow insights with Experian’s differentiated data assets, including traditional credit, trended data from Experian Information Services and Clarity Services information.
• Custom analytics and consulting services: Helps lenders integrate cash flow insights into existing underwriting strategies through the Ascend Analytical Sandbox, optimize decisioning models and accelerate deployment through Experian Decisioning.
• Cashflow Attributes for commercial lenders: Helps turn business bank transaction data into predictive attributes, providing an additional view into how a business is operating and supporting more informed commercial lending decisions.

“Cash flow data, aggregation and score usage has been growing steadily and are having a positive impact on expanding credit approvals,” said Craig Focardi, principal analyst at Celent.

“However, lenders’ cash flow underwriting businesses are still scaling, and integrating multiple vendor solutions can increase implementation time and costs. An end-to-end cash flow solution can help lenders accelerate solution implementation time and increase returns to investing in cash flow underwriting.”

Experian is an Event Partner of Open Banking Expo UK & Europe 2026 on 13-14 October at the Business Design Centre in London. Click here to find out more.

Further reading: Experian launches ‘Cashflow Attributes’ for commercial lenders