Pinwheel Launches New Consumer Income Data Product for Banks, FinTechs

Income and employment data provider Pinwheel has launched a new product that provides up-to-date consumer income data — including historical, current and projected data.

With the new Pinwheel Earnings Stream product, banks and FinTechs can create financial products that are tailored to a consumer’s income and employment status, according to a Tuesday (Sept. 27) press release.

In addition, with this product, these organizations can more easily meet consumers’ demands for earned wage access (EWA), financial wellness tools, educational services, cash flow underwriting and other use cases, the release stated.

“We developed Earnings Stream to support our customers’ strategies to answer the consumer demand for EWA services,” Pinwheel Co-Founder and CEO Kurtis Lin said in the release. “While they have long wanted to offer these products, it’s been nearly impossible to execute at scale throughout the [FinTech] industry at large.”

Among the data Earnings Stream provides are wages earned to date in the current pay period, projected earnings at the end of the current pay period and projected pay dates. To support this offering, Pinwheel uses data from 1,600 payroll platforms and 40 time and attendance (T&A) platforms, according to the press release.

“We’re excited to offer a new medium that will allow banks and [FinTechs] to deliver critical financial tools to consumers, while also encouraging customer relationship growth,” Pinwheel Head of Product Robert Reynolds said in the release. “By building products that have eliminated direct deposit switching friction, consumers can more easily use these services and banks and [FinTechs] can establish longer-term customer relationships.”

Many lenders’ underwriting activities remain rooted in taking static snapshots of would-be borrowers’ checking accounts, determining liquidity and hoping that they get paid back, Lin told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview posted in January.

Read more: Pinwheel CEO: Payroll Connectivity Gives Lenders View Into Consumer’s Total ‘Income Stack’

Gaining visibility into consumers’ employment data and accessing those primary accounts, Lin said, can “go a long way into understanding whether this is someone you want to underwrite or not.”