Credit Underwriting & PerformanceResearch Lab
Cash-flow underwriting: how lenders use bank-account data to decide who gets credit
Lenders are increasingly reading applicants' bank-account activity, with permission, to judge income, spending and cash cushions alongside credit scores. Synchrony, Huntington, Bank of America and the mortgage giants use it in real decisions, and Experian, FICO and Plaid launched new tools in 2026. Research shows a modest gain in predicting defaults, but the sources reviewed here do not establish lower losses or cheaper credit across the market.