Plaid Layer for Deposit Account Opening

Overview

Plaid Layer is an enhanced autofill feature available in Glide's Digital Account Opening (DAO) and Digital Loan Application (DLA) product for personal membership journeys. Plaid Layer only appears in the online experience and not the staff dashboard. This article will cover Plaid Layer for our deposit account opening product.

It speeds up the application process by automatically pre-filling a member's identity and bank account information — reducing friction and decision fatigue during onboarding.

Plaid Layer is an optional add on. Contact your DPM to enable.

Plaid Layer is not an identity verification tool. It is a data pre-fill tool. Identity verification still occurs separately through Plaid IDV.

What Gets Pre-Filled

With standard Plaid IDV autofill today, an applicant enters their phone number and date of birth, verifies via a one-time passcode (OTP), and receives:

• Full name

• Address

• Social Security Number (SSN)

Plaid IDV's pre-fill typically comes from credit header files.

With Plaid Layer, an eligible applicant simply enters their phone number and completes OTP verification, and receives:

• Full name

• Address

• Date of birth

• Social Security Number (SSN)

• A linked bank account

The addition of the bank account is the key differentiator. It eliminates the need for the applicant to manually select a funding method and link their account mid-application.

How Eligibility Works

Plaid Layer draws from Plaid's own network — a database of close to 100 million people who have previously connected a bank account to a Plaid-powered application and opted in to data sharing.

An applicant is eligible for Plaid Layer if:

1. They have previously connected a bank account through a Plaid-powered experience (such as a banking app, budgeting tool, or fintech product).

2. They explicitly opted in to allow Plaid to use their data for faster onboarding.

If an applicant has never used Plaid or has not opted in, Plaid Layer will not appear for them. They will automatically fall through to the standard Plaid IDV experience, which may still offer the basic autofill (name, address, SSN) if they are eligible for that.

Applicants always remain in control. Plaid provides a consumer portal where anyone can view, update, or revoke their data sharing consent at any time.

The Member Experience

What Changes in the Application Flow

When Plaid Layer is enabled for your credit union, the initial application screen adds a phone number field alongside the standard email field. This is required because Plaid Layer uses the phone number to determine eligibility before the applicant proceeds.

Here is what the flow looks like:

1. Applicant enters email and phone number.

2. Glide checks with Plaid whether the phone number is eligible for Plaid Layer.

3. If eligible: The applicant sees the Plaid Layer widget. They complete the OTP verification, and their name, DOB, address, SSN, and bank account are pre-filled into the application.

4. If not eligible: The applicant proceeds to the standard Plaid IDV widget they would have seen before — with no difference to the experience.

Bank Account and Funding

When a bank account is returned through Plaid Layer, the applicant skips the funding method selection and bank linking screens entirely. They land directly on the funding amount screen. They can still choose a different funding method if they prefer, but the default path is frictionless.

Security

Anti-Fraud Checks

Plaid Layer has built-in anti-fraud protections. Before returning any pre-filled data, Plaid checks the phone number for risk signals including:

• New phone lines

• SIM swaps

• Recent port-outs

If any of these risk signals are present, the phone number is not eligible for Plaid Layer and the applicant falls through to the standard flow.

Silent Network Authentication (SNA)

On supported mobile networks, Plaid Layer uses a method called Silent Network Authentication (SNA) instead of a standard OTP. SNA works by confirming — in the background — that the device the applicant is using actually belongs to the phone number they entered. Plaid pings the carrier, and the carrier confirms the match without the applicant having to enter a code.

This eliminates a common fraud vector where an attacker convinces someone to share their OTP code. SNA is only available on mobile devices and only on networks that support it. When not available, the standard OTP flow is used.

Risk Checks and IDV

Even when an applicant goes through Plaid Layer, Plaid IDV risk checks still run in the background. The one exception is the behavioral risk check, which relies on an applicant actively typing information into the IDV widget. Since Plaid Layer pre-fills that information, there is no typing behavior to analyze, and this check will show as "not provided" rather than a pass or fail.

This is expected and should not be treated as a red flag. An applicant who successfully completes Plaid Layer — meaning they are in Plaid's database, have opted in, and pass the phone-number fraud checks — is already a strong signal of a legitimate user.

Document Verification Behavior

Plaid Layer is designed to work seamlessly with your existing IDV configuration for document verification:

• If a credit union uses risk-based document capture (i.e., only requests a driver's license when the applicant fails data source verification checks): Eligible Plaid Layer users who pass verification will skip the document scan entirely. Applicants who trigger a review will be prompted to scan their ID after completing Plaid Layer.

• If a credit union always requires a document scan: Eligible Plaid Layer users will still go through Plaid Layer for autofill, and then proceed to the Plaid IDV document capture step. The experience will show one widget closing and another opening — this is expected behavior.

Availability and Limitations

There are currently no plans to extend Plaid Layer to business, minor, or trust journeys.

Visibility for Staff

An activity trail entry will appear in the Glide dashboard when an applicant completes Plaid Layer, indicating that this path was used during the application. This gives your team visibility into which applications went through the Plaid Layer flow versus the standard IDV flow.

Note: Plaid Layer does not have a separate session dashboard the way Plaid IDV does. Summary usage data is available through the Plaid dashboard.

Questions?

If you have questions about enabling Plaid Layer for your credit union or need help with setup, contact your Glide implementation team.