Two years after American Express began enabling immigrants to tap into their home-country credit scores, the company is expanding the service to cover people from four additional nations.
People arriving in the United States from Brazil, Nigeria, Kenya and the Dominican Republic are now eligible to use credit histories from their home countries to apply for an American Express credit card, the firm announced Tuesday.
The move — which expands an ongoing partnership with the cross-border credit score provider Nova Credit — may give Amex an edge in winning business from immigrants. More than 40 million people living in the U.S. were born in foreign countries, according to the
Nova Credit’s Credit Passport system pulls data from applicants’ history in their countries of origin, including their bill payments, car payments and homeownership records. The process generates a U.S.-equivalent credit score, which prospective customers may authorize when applying for a card online, Amex said in a press release.
Amex previously offered the service through Nova Credit for customers from Mexico, India, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Nova Credit said on its website that it eventually plans to include credit scores from consumers in China and Jamaica.
“Serving newcomers lets us back more people going places and deliver on our commitment to build financial confidence for everyone,” Sara Milsten, senior vice president of new member acquisition for U.S. consumer services at Amex, said in the release.
“Our work with American Express over the past two years has shown us the sheer impact access to financial services has on newcomers,” Misha Esipov, Nova Credit’s co-founder and CEO, said in the release.
Since its launch in 2016, Nova Credit has raised about $70 million from a
Other credit card issuers using the startup’s services include Citigroup, Petal, Deserve and Applied Bank.
