Rethinking Customer Value Through the Credit Data Lens
Banking in 2025 looks dramatically different than just a few years ago. As consumer expectations shift and digital innovation accelerates, financial institutions are moving beyond transactional services to become proactive partners in financial wellness.
We’re at a crossroads where customer value is being redefined and re-centered around inclusion, personalization, and empowerment. And one of the most promising tools to drive this shift is consumer-permissioned data, including rent, utility, telco, and subscription payments. These everyday transactions are gaining new relevance and momentum.
Now, with secure, API-based tools, banks and credit unions can enable customers to share this data easily and directly from their accounts. The result? Broader access to credit, smarter lending decisions, and a deeper, more meaningful customer relationship.
Painting a More Holistic Credit Picture
Traditional credit data and legacy scoring models help assess a consumer’s willingness to repay, but they often fall short in capturing the full picture. Recurring consumer payments (like rent and telco)—core financial behaviors for many—are typically invisible in these models, despite being strong indicators of a person’s ability to pay.
Without incorporating this kind of alternative, consumer-permissioned data, millions of consumers are excluded from credit-building opportunities, even if they consistently meet their financial obligations. Worse yet, this has a disproportionate impact on younger, lower-income, and marginalized consumers, many of whom face the classic “chicken-or-egg” dilemma: they can’t build credit without access to it.
The good news? Momentum is building. Credit bureaus, legislators, and fintech innovators are already taking action. The industry-wide goal of broadening credit access requires all parties to participate. Now, it’s time for financial institutions to play a larger role—by making it easier for consumers to permission and share the data that reflects their true financial lives.
The Evolving Definition of Customer Value
The industry is contending with other moving pieces alongside the shift toward a more comprehensive credit picture. The traditional role of banks and credit unions as mere facilitators of transactions is no longer enough. Modern financial institutions must prove their value to consumers in new ways—through transparency, personalization, and proactive support.
Standard banking metrics and legacy customer engagement models must be amended to account for this. Today’s consumers are looking for partners that help them move forward, especially when it comes to building credit and long-term financial health. Meeting these expectations means institutions must start viewing customer value through a new lens: the credit data lens.
Consumer-Permissioned Data: A New Credit Asset
The idea of consumer-permissioned data isn’t new. What is new is how easily banks and credit unions can tap into it. Thanks to modern APIs, even as access models and cost structures evolve, this data is no longer a future possibility; it’s a practical, high-impact asset that drives smarter credit decisions and deeper customer relationships.
Consumers can opt in to share verified payment history—like rent and subscription payments—directly from their checking accounts. Financial institutions, in turn, can integrate with secure, compliant APIs that allow these payments to be reported to major credit bureaus in real time.
This empowers consumers to build credit through everyday financial behavior, expanding access to credit while giving them greater control over their financial futures. In tandem, financial institutions gain access to more nuanced risk profiling and stronger lending models rooted in real-life behavior, not just traditional scores.
Spotlight: Navy Federal Credit Union Leads the Way
In May of this year, our CEO, Christian Widhalm, appeared on credit union talk show CUbroadcast, alongside Jaspreet Chawla, Senior Vice President of Savings at Navy Federal Credit Union to discuss this new vision for customer value. Through their partnership, Navy Federal now enables members to opt in to report nontraditional payments directly from their checking accounts to major credit bureaus.
Chawla emphasized the shift in member expectations: “What we’ve noticed from members in regards to what they’re looking for from a deposit product or a financial institution is ‘Be my partner to support my growth from financial health to financial wealth.’” She noted that consumer-permissioned data helps remove a major barrier to building credit, especially for those traditionally underserved by legacy credit models.
Widhalm echoed this sentiment, suggesting it may be time to rethink traditional deposit accounts altogether, suggesting we look at them as “financial performance accounts” rather than just “checking accounts.” This sentiment reflects the broader shift toward empowering consumers through better data and more inclusive credit practices.
Strategic Value: Why This Matters Now
In an increasingly commoditized market, it’s never been more important for financial institutions to differentiate themselves. Consumer-permissioned data offers exactly that—a strategic lever that allows institutions to move beyond traditional offerings and deliver personalized, credit-building tools that create lasting value.
It’s also a proactive way to stay ahead of evolving regulatory expectations. Rather than reacting to pressure, forward-looking FIs can lead the conversation around inclusive, data-driven credit practices.
And the competitive urgency is real: as consumers become more digitally savvy, many are exploring financial services from nontraditional providers—tech companies, social platforms, even retailers. In fact, 42% say they would consider getting financial services from one of these newer entrants.
Consumers, particularly younger generations, are focused on building their own financial ecosystems, and they’re gravitating toward providers that help them do just that. Banks and credit unions that offer tools to foster financial wellness and credit growth are well-positioned to turn transactional relationships into long-term loyalty.
Rethinking the Role of Financial Institutions
The future of banking is data-driven and customer-empowering. Financial institutions that embrace tools like consumer-permissioned cash flow data position themselves at the forefront of this evolution. Why? Because they’re not just offering services; they’re presenting real opportunities.
Integrating these capabilities isn’t just a play for FIs to enhance credit scores; it’s a strategic leap toward redefining financial partnership, fostering long-term trust, and creating pathways to financial health for a broader swath of consumers.
As consumer expectations continue to rise—and alternative data becomes the norm rather than the exception—this is the moment for financial institutions to lead with purpose. The institutions that act now won’t just keep up with change; they’ll help shape it.