In an effort to help finance companies and other lenders verify income and employment information, Experian recently announced consumers can now choose to share information directly from their employers’ payroll service through Experian Verify when applying for credit, including auto financing, mortgages and personal loans.

The company highlighted that the enhancement introduces Experian’s automated income and employment verification waterfall and can help finance companies and lenders leverage both instant and permissioned technology with consumer consent to verify income and employment for over 85% of the U.S. workforce.

Experian cited three reasons why all of these news developments matter, including:

—While verification of income and employment is required in mortgage lending, the practice has become more common across other types of unsecured lending.

—A multi-step approach is needed to help reduce dependencies on complex and costly manual verification processes.

—Finance companies and lenders who use a multi-step approach can keep consumers engaged while verifying income and employment information faster and more efficiently.

“With Experian Verify, we offer lenders multiple options to easily complete their income and employment verification while helping to provide consumers with the best possible experience,” said John Tsefrikas, senior vice president and general manager Experian Verification Solutions.

“Consumers must always consent to sharing their income and employment information with lenders through Experian Verify and, with this new enhancement, we’re helping remove the burden consumers face in providing paper documentation if a lender is unable to obtain this information in a digital and automated fashion,” Tsefrikas continued.

Here is how Experian’s automated waterfall is designed to work:

—Finance companies and lenders first obtain consumer consent to verify income and employment information in real -time via Experian’s instant employer payroll network.

—From there, if a consumer’s records are available, the finance company or lender receives an Experian Verify report in real time.

—In the event a consumer’s income and employment information is unavailable, Experian will automatically start the permissioned verification process, which enables consumers to share their information directly from their employer’s payroll service.

—Both experiences are Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulated, and lenders will receive the same verified income and employment report from Experian regardless of the method used to obtain the information.

Experian pointed out its consumer-permissioned enhancement also can help finance companies and lenders obtain income and employment information for a broad range of consumers, including gig workers, contractors, government employees and more.

“Many of today’s leading financial institutions, including mortgage and auto lenders, card issuers, fintechs, and more trust Experian Verify for their income and employment verification needs,” the company said.

To learn more, visit www.experian.com/verify.