August 26, 2025
Scaling Instant Onboarding to Hundreds of Millions of Users
When we introduced Layer, Plaid’s instant financial onboarding experience, we were responding to a simple truth: consumers expect fast, seamless digital experiences—whether they're ordering food, signing up for a new app, or opening a financial account.
Layer powers onboarding for companies ranging from startups like Benny to large fintechs like Acorns to securely onboard millions of users in just a few taps. Acorns has seen a significant uptick in conversion for customers onboarding via Plaid Layer, with a lift at every step of the journey: more customers are completing sign-up, becoming paying subscribers, and initiating their first investments.
“They’re our best-performing cohort,” said Seth Wunder, Global President and CFO at Acorns. “Acorns customers who onboard via Plaid Layer convert more often and stay more engaged."
Today we are excited to expand the reach of Layer from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of users, helping you convert more of your funnel, instantly, with zero extra effort.
Introducing Layer Extended Autofill: Instant onboarding, for everyone
Until now, Layer delivered a near-instant onboarding experience for users that were already in the Plaid Network. And that footprint has grown fast. Over the last year, Layer has accelerated onboarding for millions users and now includes over 45 million remembered users with full identity and linked financial accounts, making Layer the largest network of remembered users in the world with both bank and identity information.
That high-converting, low-friction experience has become foundational for onboarding. And after hearing from customers who wanted to accelerate onboarding for even more users, we added autofill into Layer to extend those benefits to the vast majority of U.S. consumers by reducing manual data entry and simplifying the first-time user onboarding experiences.
Layer intelligently orchestrates the right onboarding path for each user, whether they’re new or returning. This allows companies to deliver the fastest and most secure experience without compromising trust. Powered by Plaid’s trusted identity infrastructure, Layer is more than just autofill. It is a smarter, more adaptive way to onboard.
You can now fast-track onboarding for most users, whether or not they’ve used Plaid before. When a new user enters your onboarding flow, Layer checks if they are a returning user and meets your unique requirements. If they do, they are routed through the same fast, high-converting Layer experience. If not, Layer authenticates the device and pulls identity data from regulated sources in real time, which the user can then confirm before completing onboarding. All of this happens within Layer’s intuitive UI, backed by real-time risk checks including device identification and mobile carrier checks.
The result: instant, seamless identity autofill—no extra integration, no shortcuts on security, no compromises.
“Plaid Layer reduces friction for new customers, helping them create an account much more quickly and smoothly—without any compromise in security,” explained Seth Wunder, Global President and CFO at Acorns. “It’s a meaningful enhancement to the overall customer experience.”
Built with trust and compliance in mind
As digital onboarding becomes the norm, financial institutions and fintechs alike are working to deliver seamless user experiences while staying aligned with regulatory expectations. Recently, the FDIC issued new guidance confirming that banks can use pre-filled identity data to meet Customer Identification Program (CIP) requirements, as long as users review and confirm the information.
While this milestone is specific to banks, it reflects a broader shift across financial services toward more modern, user-friendly approaches to onboarding. It doesn’t change how Layer Extended Autofill works, but it affirms the core principles behind it: secure identity retrieval, user transparency, and compliance-minded orchestration. For banks and their partners, it helps reduce friction and ambiguity without compromising trust.
Layer Extended Autofill is built to meet institutions and financial apps where they are, offering a fast, intuitive onboarding flow grounded in real-time risk checks, user control, and compliance.
The new benchmark for digital onboarding
A year ago, we launched Layer with a simple goal: make onboarding instant, secure, and delightful.
Today, Layer isn’t just a new way to onboard users—it’s the standard for fast, secure, and frictionless onboarding, trusted by millions and growing every day. As we look ahead, we are excited about the future and continuing to help businesses provide onboarding experiences that win more users and define new standards across the financial ecosystem.
Want to see it in action?
Contact our team to learn how Layer can accelerate onboarding for your business.