How Teal's Partnership with IRIS Software Group Expands Background Income Verification Across the UK

Income verification has traditionally meant one of three things: asking the applicant to log in to a portal, asking them to upload payslips, or calling their employer. All three add friction. All three slow down decisions.

Direct Connections change that entirely.

What Are Direct Connections?

Direct Connections are direct API integrations between Teal and the UK's leading payroll providers. When a lender submits a verification request through Teal's API, we match the applicant's details against payroll records held by our partner providers and return verified income, employment status, and employer information, typically in sub-seconds.

The applicant doesn't need to log in to anything. They don't upload documents. They don't even know the verification is happening. It's completely invisible to them and instant for the lender.

IRIS Software Group Joins Our Network

We're pleased to announce that IRIS Software Group, one of the UK's largest payroll and HR software providers, has joined Teal's Direct Connections network.

IRIS' payroll and HR solutions support over 300,000 UK organisations and processes payroll for approximately one in six UK employees. A provider of that scale doesn't open its payroll ecosystem to just anyone. This partnership is a direct validation of Teal's enterprise-grade infrastructure, security standards, and ability to operate reliably at scale. It also significantly expands the proportion of the UK workforce that can be verified through background checks alone, reducing the need for fallback methods like document uploads or user-authorised logins.

"For years, income verification has meant chasing documents, waiting on employer references, or sending applicants through login flows. Bringing IRIS into our Direct Connections network changes that for a huge share of the UK workforce. When someone applies for credit, their lender can confirm income and employment straight from the payroll source in sub-seconds, with the applicant clear on what is being checked and why. That is where verification is heading, and a provider at the scale of IRIS choosing to partner with us shows the shift is already underway."
Michael Hart, CEO, Teal

"We're committed to ensuring our customers' data is used securely and in ways that genuinely add value – for them and for the broader financial ecosystem. Partnering with Teal is a natural extension of that commitment. By bringing IRIS into their Direct Connections network, we're enabling lenders and fintechs to verify income and employment for millions of UK employees instantly and seamlessly, without friction or compromise on security."
Stephanie Coward, Managing Director for HCM, IRIS Software Group

What This Means for Lenders and Fintechs

If you're integrated with Teal's API, the IRIS partnership works automatically. When an applicant happens to be paid through an IRIS payroll system, Teal will route the verification through the Direct Connection and return results in sub-seconds. No additional integration is required on your side.

The benefits are immediate:

Faster decisions. Verification responses in sub-seconds, not hours or days.
Higher completion rates. No applicant action means no drop-off.
Source-verified data. Income and employment data comes directly from the payroll system, not from a document that could be edited or outdated.
Broader coverage. More applicants verified in the background, fewer sent to manual review.

How Direct Connections Fit into Teal's Verification Stack

Direct Connections are one of three verification methods available through Teal's API:

Direct Connections. Background verification via payroll provider APIs. No applicant action needed.
User Connections. Applicant-authorised access to payroll accounts via login. Used when a Direct Connection isn't available.
Doc Scan. AI-powered document verification for payslips and other income evidence. Used as a fallback or when payroll access isn't possible.

Teal's orchestration engine automatically routes each verification request to the optimal method based on coverage, speed, and your configuration. You define the priority and fallback logic; Teal handles the routing.

What's Next

We're actively expanding our Direct Connections network with additional payroll providers across the UK. Each new partnership increases the percentage of applicants that can be verified instantly, without friction.

If you're a lender, broker, or fintech looking to reduce verification time and improve applicant experience, we'd love to show you how it works.