Experian Launches Cashflow Attributes, and the Bank Account Moves Closer to Becoming the New Credit File
Quick Take: Experian has launched Cashflow Attributes for commercial lenders, a set of more than 500 analytics-ready data points built from business bank account transaction data, developed with fintech Slope and aimed at underwriting, portfolio management and model development.
We've been saying it for a while at Funder Intel, and most recently in our conversation with Ocrolus's David Snitkof: cash flow data is king. A credit file tells you how a business handled yesterday's obligations. The bank account tells you whether it can handle tomorrow's. Many in small business lending understand this and now one of the three major bureaus put that principle into a product.
What Experian launched
Announced by Experian September 29, Experian Cashflow Attributes for commercial lenders converts business checking account transaction data, supplied first-party by a lender or permissioned from the business, into 500-plus standardized attributes covering liquidity, revenue trends, operating expenses, debt exposure and repayment capacity. The product is built on technology from Slope, a fintech specializing in commercial bank account data, and is designed to plug into underwriting, portfolio monitoring and model development alongside Experian's traditional commercial credit data.
The performance claim worth noting: paired with traditional commercial credit data, Experian says the attributes deliver up to a 24 percent lift in predictive performance for thin-file businesses, the exact segment where a standard commercial bureau pull tells you almost nothing. Molly Poppie, Experian's chief product and analytics officer for financial services, framed cash flow as "another powerful dimension" on top of commercial credit data, and Slope CEO Lawrence Lin Murata described the combination as helping lenders see businesses more deeply.
Experian wrapped the launch in Federal Reserve survey numbers that explain why the whole business lending market cares: 60 percent of small businesses sought financing in the prior twelve months, only 42 percent of applicants got everything they applied for, and more than 20 percent got nothing. That gap isn't a marketing problem. It's an information problem, and transaction data is the information.
The direction of travel
This launch isn't an isolated move. Experian spent 2025 building the consumer version of this stack, launching consumer Cashflow Attributes and a Cashflow Score and pairing credit and cash flow data in a single model. Extending it to commercial lending was the obvious next step, and Slope has been publicly arguing that SMB cash flow underwriting remains unsolved at scale. Ocrolus, Plaid, Codat and now a bureau-scale player are all converging on the same thesis. The bank account is becoming the new credit file, and that direction of travel won't reverse.
Who proved the thesis first? The alternative business financing side of this market. MCA and revenue-based funders built entire underwriting models on deposits and daily balances back when banks wouldn't look past a credit score and two years of tax returns. That approach spent a decade being dismissed as loose underwriting. Experian just packaged it for the commercial mainstream with a lift statistic attached.
That cuts both ways for the alternative side. The durable edge those funders held over banks was never capital, it was the willingness to underwrite from the bank account. Every tool that turns cash flow underwriting into something a bank can license, rather than a craft a funding desk builds, narrows that edge. But the same shelf is open to everyone: funders and fintech lenders can license the identical attributes, and for shops still running manual statement reviews or a handful of homegrown ratios, 500 standardized attributes plus a claimed 24 percent thin-file lift is a faster stack than most mid-size operations could build alone. The question isn't whether cash flow data gets commoditized. It's who moves first once it is.
Broker Move: Expect the practical effect to show up in bank and fintech credit boxes over the next few quarters: more approvals reaching into thin-file businesses that were previously automatic declines. If part of your pitch to merchants is "the bank will never approve you," start checking that claim before you lead with it. The durable broker value shifts to what attributes can't see: speed, structure, complex situations, and businesses whose statements need explaining rather than scoring.
The lenders who win the next cycle, bank or non-bank, will be the ones reading the account, not just the file. We said cash flow data is king. As of this week, it ships with a bureau logo on it.
