I think it's time we just eliminated the concept of personally identifiable information (PII). Your SSN, birthdate, name, etc. are no longer secret. Operate with that assumption. Invest in a department in the government (e.g. digital service) to make this change once and for all. Heck, let's eliminate DST and move to the metric system while we're at it. Let's call this "moving to new standards" that will pay off in dividends in the future.
How is any of this information supposed to secure anything? Name, birth date, address, etc are all public record or essentially public record. The only "secret" piece of information is the SSN, which is (a) public for almost all Americans and (b) specifically forbidden for being used as an identification number.
This is a very 'tech' response in a good way, it made me smile. I think they meant why would a bank give an anybody a loan? You have no way of knowing if an anybody already has a loan out with you and you have no ability to evaluate their risk. Why would you loan money to someone with no ability to review their credit health and financial situation? It's an impossible battle without inventing a user specific metric.
How do you price your current income with no identifying information is the point that was being made. If you can prove your income then you have identifiers.
you get a standardized form from your employer, or income transactions from the bank. They can use that data internally, but they cannot sell it nor give it to 3rd parties.
The list of breaches just goes on-and-on: https://krebsonsecurity.com/category/data-breaches/