The all-new Plaid Link

Making money easier for everyone is our vision at Plaid. In 2015, we built Plaid Link to give first-time fintech users a secure and easy way to connect their financial accounts, creating a new industry standard. Now, fintech is everywhere. 73% of Americans see fintech as their “new normal” for managing money, and many Americans use more than three fintech apps. To support the surge in fintech, we’re focused on building new experiences that help people get started with your apps more quickly.

Today we're introducing the all-new Plaid Link that makes the onboarding experience simpler and faster while helping to ensure stable access to user-permissioned data for the millions of people who now rely on fintech to manage their financial lives.

A simplified flow for returning users

Plaid powers over 3,000 apps and one in four people in the U.S. have used Plaid to connect their financial accounts. We’re excited to introduce a simplified flow for these users that may reduce the number of steps it takes them to connect their accounts.    

Here’s how it works: When someone who has previously connected their financial accounts with Plaid signs up for a new app, their financial institution is already displayed, thereby skipping the institution select pane. Next, they are given either a pre-filled flow or are asked to verify their identity with a one-time passcode. In total, this may reduce the number of steps required to connect their financial accounts.

This feature is available to all customers with an additional integration. You can view the docs here.

A faster overall experience

Speed is critical to offering the best user experience.  We’ve done a number of things to make improvements here.  First, we’ve reduced the time it takes for each pane to load, making the account connection experience for users up to nearly 30% faster than before.

In addition, with over 11,000 financial institutions in the U.S., we want to help users find and select their financial institution with confidence and ease.  So we’ve improved the experience of selecting an institution by displaying the most relevant ones first based on the user’s location and the app they’re using.  Lastly, we’ve introduced a single column grid that shows the financial institution’s name, URL and logo so users are more likely to choose the right one.  In early testing, these changes have increased conversions.

A cleaner, more accessible design

At its core, Link is designed to make fintech easy, approachable and accessible to all by providing a simple way for people to connect to the more than 11,000 financial institutions in the US.  We’ve improved the design by making it cleaner and more visually appealing, helping to ensure the onboarding process is even more successful.

This helps give people confidence as they connect their accounts and reinforces the foundation that enables us to build more features that provide value to you – for example, the simplified flow for returning users that we highlighted above.

Accessibility is another critical component to help ensure that more people can onboard successfully. The new Link is designed with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards in mind, making Link more accessible on assistive technologies such as screen readers and an increase in color contrast for better visibility.

Better data connectivity

Data connectivity is a top priority, that’s why our dedicated Financial Access team works closely with institutions to help ensure that experiences like Link enable stable bank connections, and that users can continue to share their financial information with the apps they depend on.

How to get started

We know how important changes like these are to you. As a platform, it’s our job to take on the heavy lifting of offering the best account connection experience for your users so that you can focus on building the apps and services that power people’s financial lives.

We will begin rolling out these changes beginning November 2, 2020. If you’re using the Link iOS SDK or the React Native SDK on iOS, please ensure you’ve upgraded to LinkKit 1.1.33 or any version thereafter–including LinkKit 2.0.1, which we just released. Otherwise, no other action is needed.