A2A, Consumer Permissioned TRV Services Provided by NCS

In this article, you will learn:

• The evolution of verification due to Consumer Permissioned Data.

• About Account-to-Account data transfer, TRV’s true facilitator.

• How A2A and CP-TRV come together to benefit the entire verification process.

• NCS/Service 1st’s commitment to the future of credit decisioning.

The path to securing a loan, a mortgage, or a rental property is one filled with many speed bumps. For decades, the process of verifying an applicant’s financial stability has relied on manual methods. Lenders face the process of reviewing pay stubs, W-2s, and manually calling HR departments. This system can be slow, expensive, prone to human error, and, perhaps most critically, vulnerable to document fraud, putting businesses and their stakeholders at risk.

Thankfully, the industry is changing, driven by consumer demand for speed and control. The solution lies in the rise of Account-to-Account (A2A) data sharing, enabled by Open Finance and Banking standards. This technology is the backbone of Consumer-Permissioned Data (CPD), which is now revolutionizing something we call TRV®, also known as tax return verification. By giving the consumer direct control over their own financial records, we are moving from static, easily manipulated documents to secure, dynamic data feeds.

What is "Consumer-Permissioned TRV" (CP-TRV)?

CP-TRV refers to a secure process where a consumer grants explicit, digital consent for a trusted third party, such as consumer reporting agency (CRA), to access specific data fields directly from the source, the IRS.

CPD fundamentally shifts the control of financial information to the individual. Instead of relying on a lender to chase down a pay stub, the applicant consents to share the necessary data, which is then pulled directly from the IRS. This shift from manually sharing documents to sharing secure data feeds is the most critical change in modern verification.

CP-TRV’s True Facilitator: A2A

Account-to-Account data transfer is the secure mechanism that makes this possible. It utilizes modern, tokenized Open Finance APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to link the consumer’s bank or payroll account to the verification service.

How A2A does this is straightforward and secure. The steps are simple:

1. Consumer Initiates: The applicant is prompted during the loan application to verify their data.

2. Secure Login: The applicant logs in securely through the verification platform, authenticating themselves with familiar credentials or biometrics.

3. Data Push: The data provider then pushes the verified, structured data—income, employment history, and account details—to the CRA. No sensitive login credentials are ever shared or stored by the CRA.

   
   

The Core Benefits of A2A/CP-TRV

The adoption of CP-TRV services delivers benefits across the entire lending and ecosystem:

Instant Speed and Efficiency

For lenders, verification turnaround time drops from days to near real time. This vastly improves operational efficiency, lowers processing costs, and increases applicant conversion rates by eliminating friction and waiting periods. For the consumer, it means near-instant approvals for loans, and services, enhancing the user experience.

Enhanced Accuracy and Fraud Mitigation

One of the most significant advantages is the integrity of the data. Because the information comes directly from the trusted, primary source via a secure API, the risk of manually altered documents is eliminated. The data is real-time and immutable, providing the most accurate, up-to-date snapshot of an applicant’s financial standing. As payment processors and financial security firms invest in new fraud detection for A2A services, the risk profile continues to improve.

Financial Inclusion and Fairer Access to Credit

CP-TRV is a powerful tool for financial inclusion. It allows consumer reporting agencies to provide reliable income and cash flow data for the credit invisible or thin-file population. This provides a more holistic view of financial reliability beyond a traditional credit score, enabling credit access for hard-to-verify applicants, such as freelancers, gig workers, and the self-employed.

Consumer Control and Transparency

This is a consent-based model, which fundamentally builds trust. The consumer is in complete control: they choose which data to share, with whom, and for how long. This aligns with a growing consumer expectation for data privacy and autonomy, allowing them to participate in the application process with greater confidence.

Making Data Sharing Safer

The foundation of CP-TRV is built on modern, tokenized Open Finance APIs. This approach is inherently safer than traditional methods, as the consumer never transmits their login credentials to a third party.

What’s even better is that these systems enforce data minimization. They are designed to share only the required data fields, rather than the entirety of a sensitive bank statement, greatly enhancing privacy. This approach is strongly supported by regulatory bodies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), that have finalized rules to protect consumers' personal financial data rights and ensure that third parties limit their data collection.

Speed and Efficiency: The Future of Credit Decisioning

National Credit Reporting Systems, Inc. provides 8821 transcript services as a part of our consumer-permissioned IRS transcript solutions. These solutions also include A2A (and) a no-form version of 4506-C. This process enables consumers to grant access to their transcripts for both future years and past.            

Serving industries like mortgage, insurance, and education, this tool makes quality control, servicing, and origination a secure and efficient process. Where the form-based services have a turnaround time of 72 hours, our TRV services reduced it to near real time. 

Additional Benefits of NCS TRV Services:

• SSN/TIN Validation: All SSN and TIN transcripts are verified by the SSA.

• No IRS fee: There is no IRS fee for the A2A 4506C and  8821 transcripts.

• FCRA Compliance: NCS’ TRV services are governed by the FCRA.

• Integration: 8821 transcript data and reports are available through our existing NCS integrations, including Encompass, Meridian Link Mortgage, and NCS’ API.

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To learn more about this exciting advancement, please visit our website or contact us today.