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Financial technology company Plaid said on Wednesday it is expanding its Layer product, an instant onboarding solution for financial services, by adding an autofill feature aimed at cutting friction for U.S. consumers.
Layer, launched in 2024, was designed to give users a faster way to open accounts and access services, from signing up for fintech apps to ordering food online. The product has so far onboarded over one million users and now covers more than 40 million “remembered customers” with pre-verified identity and linked financial accounts, according to the company. Plaid itself connects more than 12,000 financial institutions in the U.S. and Europe, and is integrated into apps such as Venmo, Robinhood, Coinbase, and Chime. The company said Layer leverages its existing infrastructure that processes over 2 billion API calls each month.
Extending Access Beyond Plaid’s Network
Until now, Layer’s near-instant onboarding was limited to users already within Plaid’s network. The new Layer Extended Autofill feature broadens its reach by allowing companies to onboard both new and returning users with minimal manual data entry.
The system works by verifying whether a customer is already recognized by Plaid. Returning users pass through the existing streamlined flow, while first-time users are authenticated through their device and matched to identity data from regulated sources in real time. Users confirm the information before finalizing onboarding, which takes place within Layer’s interface. The process includes risk checks such as device ID verification and carrier authentication. Plaid said its risk engine uses more than 150 behavioral and device signals to flag potential fraud attempts, an important step as U.S. identity theft losses exceeded $43 billion in 2023, according to Javelin Strategy & Research.
The company said the feature is designed to align with fresh U.S. regulatory guidance. In July, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) clarified that banks can rely on pre-filled identity data to meet Customer Identification Program (CIP) requirements, provided that customers review and approve the information.
The FDIC’s guidance comes as U.S. regulators tighten oversight on digital identity verification, with the Treasury Department estimating that fraud tied to account opening costs U.S. financial institutions more than $3.3 billion annually. Analysts say products like Plaid Layer could cut onboarding times from days to minutes, reducing abandonment rates that can reach 60% in online financial applications.
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