Why do they need bank statements?
To answer your question literally as “to verify funds”, that is about your down payment and closing costs. They not only need to see that you “have” it, they can tell that when they bring it to escrow. They need to know that you have had it ,and that you have personally accumulated the funds to close. If all the money you need to buy a house appears in the two months prior to closing as one big lump sum deposit, then they will have to trace where it came from. Generally you can’t borrow funds to buy a house. Some of it can be gift, but they have to approve that gift and sometimes do and sometimes don’t, and there is paperwork to verify it is a gift and not a loan. Who the gift came from is also important, so sometimes they want their bank statements too. They will examine these more closely for some people than others, and may be “looking for” different things as to your statements than someone else’s. The “they” is the underwriter. If it is a quick approval of an over-qualified buyer,
