Experian’s Fast Track shortens pre-approval uncertainty by using Open Banking and affordability data

# What Fast Track does

Experian has added Fast Track to its Marketplace offering. The feature brings additional income, affordability and identity insights into the pre-approval stage for products like loans and credit cards. The goal is to give consumers a clearer signal about their likelihood of acceptance before they submit a full application.

# Why this matters to consumers

Previously, a consumer could receive a pre-approved offer on a marketplace and still be subject to further affordability and verification checks by the lender. Those later checks sometimes produced revised offers, requests for more documentation, or outright declines. Fast Track pushes a wider set of checks earlier in the journey so people who accept pre-approved offers face fewer surprises later.

• Greater confidence that a pre-approved offer is likely to stand up during the lender's application checks.
• Fewer late-stage requests for extra documents or changes to the initial offer.

# Why this matters to lenders

Lenders receive richer data during the marketplace stage, which helps them complete more verification and affordability checks upfront. That reduces the volume of applications requiring manual review and lowers the number of applications that fail at final checks.

• Fewer manual reviews of applications that are unlikely to be approved.
• Higher application completion rates because customers are less likely to drop out after encountering additional hurdles.
• Shorter application timelines and reduced operational friction when fewer borrowers need follow-up.

# Early results and adoption

Lendable served as a key partner and early adopter. In Lendable's testing, Fast Track produced a 50% reduction in verification issues among customers who had been given pre-approved offers. That outcome suggests fewer customers were stopped during final checks and that offers were more likely to be honoured through to completion.

# How Fast Track works in practice

Fast Track combines traditional eligibility assessments with enhanced data inputs, including Open Banking transaction insights and more detailed affordability information, plus identity data where available. By analysing that broader dataset earlier, sellers on the Marketplace can perform checks that previously occurred only after a customer had begun a lender's application process.

# What to watch next

• Rollout: Other lenders beyond Lendable have already begun using Fast Track to refine their marketplace-to-application flows. Watch for broader adoption across lenders that use Experian Marketplace.

• Customer experience measures: Track metrics such as application completion rates, time-to-decision, and incidence of post-offer document requests to assess whether Fast Track reduces friction consistently across product types.

• Data scope: The feature's effectiveness will depend on the scale and quality of Open Banking and affordability inputs available for each applicant.

# Bottom line