I've been looking for a new apartment in NYC and the place I applied for wanted 2 month's of paystubs and 2 month's of bank statements. Most agencies I've seen request this or more. It's insane but if you find a place you like things sell so quickly here that you have no choice but to play by their rules or leave the city.

Unrelated rant but the reason I've been looking is my current landlord has taken over 35 days to send me a renewal contract. Go figure that 10 minutes after texting him I'm going through the credit check for a new apartment he sends me the updated document.

NY places limits on landlords such as: cannot consider or even look at past evictions, cannot ask for more than a month deposit, and others. Also they completely left landlords out in the cold for rent for over a year and counting. NY is extremely tenant friendly and it can cost a lot if you get a bad tenant. Year(s) of unpaid rent, legal fees, and money for repairs.

Hey I don't make the rules - but if I don't play by them I lose a place I really wanted to live in. Sucks, but that's life.

I don't know where in the world you are - but the American solution to this problem are a series of organizations that constantly ingest a massive amount of financial data around what transactions you're executing and then sell it to the lender without your knowledge. I'd be happy to be the person actually handing over so much of my financial data instead of it being harvested without my consent.