Bonifii today announced that it has selected Mastercard, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Finicity, as the preferred open banking provider for its Member Pass credit unions to access consumer-permission bank data, to inform underwriting for different loan types across mortgage, auto, personal and small business.

MemberPass, powered by Bonifii, is a digital ID that uses distributed ledger technology and FIDO privacy principles, currently issued by credit unions. FIDO technical specifications state that a FIDO device must not have a global identifier visible across websites, which helps to prevent unwanted and unexpected re-identification of a FIDO user. With the help of Mastercard, Bonifii members can add consumer-permissioned data in addition to the MemberPass digital identity solution to help individuals access capital securely.

“MemberPass is the gold standard in the digital identity market, and as Bonifii’s preferred open banking provider, Mastercard will enable credit unions to step into the digital frontier through the use of consumer-permissioned data,”

“This will complement the current credit rating system by leveraging verification of income and assets for auto, personal, and mortgage lending.”

                                                                                                 John Ainsworth, CEO Bonifii’s.

Mastercard’s open banking platform can deliver verification of income, asset, and employment reports directly to credit unions during the underwriting process, all built with consumer-permissioned data from the borrower. This technology enables credit unions to offer a digital-first method through which their borrowers can instantly provide the required information that the credit union needs to make a lending decision and replaces manual processes historically associated with the underwriting process for both the borrower and the lender.

“Mastercard’s open banking technology provides a growth opportunity for credit unions to expand account opening, lending, and loan servicing,” 

“Mastercard’s ability to immediately verify account information, via open banking technology and consumer-permissioned data, will be imperative for competitive financial institutions, and digitizing account verification to enhance and better inform underwriting methods will play a critical role in the future of loan processing.”

                                                       Andy Sheehan, EVP, U.S. Open Banking at Mastercard.

Mastercard’s open banking technology also reduces the potential for fraud and other time-consuming inaccuracies that credit union underwriters face daily. Together, Bonifii and Mastercard will allow for a more safe, secure, and private opportunity for consumers to permission their data to verify identity and account ownership during the lending process.