Streamlined Financing: API Efficiency for Brokers and Lenders

Accurate client information in the hands of brokers and lenders is as necessary as the means of obtaining it. This cyclical demand creates a need for protected and streamlined information from credible sources in the world prequalification services. Businesses and lenders are relying on application programming interfacing (API) to efficiently procure sensitive information from a variety of sources, including Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.

Whether you seek to conduct prescreens, hard or soft credit pulls, access liens and judgements, or verify income or employment, the use of an API can fulfill those needs and more. To better understand the need for API integration as lenders and brokers, knowing its range of uses and protections can determine how it can produce a variety of intended results.

Hard and Soft Credit Pulls

Prequalifying customers and clients is becoming as common as any modern substantiation process from auto loans to financing. Traditionally, lenders have required bulky paperwork and lengthy meetings to verify credit history before approving or denying loans. Currently, API integrations on a website or application can complete this process in a fraction of the time, all without an initial face-to-face interaction between lender and client. This streamlines the time for both parties, all the while gaining passive leads from curious clients seeking fast and easy qualification procedures.

Soft Pulls

Services like those from Soft Pull Solutions offer a variety of information from the most reputable credit reporting agencies on the market. When conducting soft pulls with their API integration, lenders and brokers can receive a full and accurate report without the need for hard credit pulls. This alone can gain more clients knowing credit won’t be impacted by the multiple inquiries on credit history. Additional benefits from utilizing Soft Pull Solutions’ soft pull API include:

• No impact on consumer’s credit
• No social or date of birth required
• Full credit report
• Access to all three bureaus
• Fewer compliance obligations—save costs and headaches

Hard Pulls

When necessary, businesses, lenders, and brokers may need to conduct hard pulls for the most detailed client credit history. The most common needs for hard pulls are for lines of credit, auto loans, mortgages, private student loans, some landlord applications, or new credit accounts. If lenders or brokers are only capable of conducting hard pulls through their API services, clients’ credit scores can become damaged. The bottom line is to rely on modern services that provide less invasive pulls on client information to provide more streamlined financing options for your clientele.

Judgements

Some pulling services are only capable of acquiring limited amounts of client information. Through an inclusive soft pull from Soft Pull Solutions, your business can obtain public records from civil court filings to determine any financial discrepancies your client may have incurred throughout their lifetime. This can include bankruptcy information or liens and judgements previously wiped from client records.

When creditors sue based on outstanding debts, legal judgements can brand individuals as unable or unwilling to pay. This information is outlined in soft pulls with the appropriate API integration, allowing you to safely and reliably lend to potential clients.

Liens

Some individuals go years without paying taxes, and only some of those individuals incur tax liens from the IRS when owing over $10,000. These liens provide incremental payments of outstanding taxes owed, or allow the IRS to seize or liquidate assets. Based on the public access to this information, an appropriate API can filter this information into a streamlined report, providing more information surrounding a client's ability to pay back loans and services. As a lender, broker, or business, access to such transparent records is crucial in making high dollar determinations.

Verify Income/Employment

Additional services offered through streamlined API integration can provide automated income checks (AIC). When credit score alone isn’t a determining factor for lenders or brokers, verifying income can prevent fraudulent activity and authenticate an individual’s claim of income. This includes job history, place of employment, income throughout the year, and the longevity served at their place of employment. These have traditionally required time-consuming procedures, making this information less available to lenders and brokers when evaluating potential clients. Now with modern API, your potential for accurate lending has never been better.

Compliance and Fraud

As fraud wreaks havoc for millions of individuals throughout the world, anyone in the business of lending money can benefit from detecting identity theft and fraudulent personas to prevent the further loss of money or reputation. API has the ability to identify synthetic identity fraud on multiple levels, including the detection of fabricated data like social security numbers, address mismatching, and accurately supplied information from the correct individual. Without detecting fraudulent information, businesses can suffer from:

• Damaged reputation
• Fines for noncompliance with “Know Your Customer”
• Account opening and maintenance costs
• Monetary loss from the unpaid balance
• Rising collections costs for tracking down fake people
• Thinner margins
• Less advantageous rates for customers

Yours and your clients’ ability to be adequately protected by safeguards and proper information acquisition is one of the most important aspects of financial lending in our modern era. According to Experian, 1 in 20 Americans are victims of some form of identity fraud as of 2020, adding more efficacy to the services provided by a substantial API and those that support them. With more need to prevent fraudulent and accurate lending services, conducting an initial appointment with Soft Pull Solutions can begin the process of fortifying your lending procedures from now into the future.