The disclosed embodiments provide a system that verifies user access to financial accounts. During operation, the system obtains a first set of financial data representing one or more financial transactions of a first financial account. Next, the system matches the one or more financial transactions to a second set of financial data representing issuance of the one or more financial transactions from a second financial account. The system then uses the matched financial transactions to automatically generate a first verification of ownership of the first financial account by a user without requiring input associated with the one or more financial transactions from the user.