Automated Income Verification
Automated income verification replaces paystubs, W-2s, and verification phone calls with data pulled directly from payroll systems and bank accounts, with the borrower’s consent, in seconds. Community banks commonly pay $55 to $280 per file through legacy channels like The Work Number and IRS transcripts; source-data pulls cost a few dollars and come back before the borrower finishes the application.
How it works
The borrower authenticates with their payroll provider or bank inside your branded flow. RAVEN returns employer, role, tenure, pay frequency, gross and net income, and year-to-date earnings from the payroll system of record. Where payroll coverage runs out (gig workers, the self-employed, cash-adjacent income), bank transaction analysis identifies recurring income deposits and their sources.
- Payroll-source income and employment in one pull
- Bank-transaction income analysis for non-W-2 borrowers
- Year-to-date and historical earnings, not a single snapshot
- Refreshable before closing without re-asking the borrower
The fraud math
Income misrepresentation is the leading category in Fannie Mae’s confirmed fraud findings, at 46% of cases, and it works because paystubs are trivially editable and verification calls ring numbers the applicant supplied. Payroll-sourced income can’t be inflated with a template, and it never involves calling anyone. Automating income verification is usually evaluated as a cost cut; the larger return may be the fraud it never lets in.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of borrowers can be verified automatically?
Payroll connections cover the large majority of W-2 employment; bank transaction analysis extends coverage to gig and self-employed income. The remainder falls back to documents inside the same flow, so there is one process either way.
Is automated income verification accepted by the GSEs?
Yes. Fannie Mae’s Day 1 Certainty and Freddie Mac’s AIM validate digitally sourced income and grant rep-and-warrant relief on validated components.
What does it cost compared to The Work Number?
Legacy verifications run $55 to $280 per file. Source-data verification runs in the low single-digit dollars per pull.