Block (NYSE: XYZ) has taken a notable step toward broadening access to credit by making its Cash App Score available to outside lenders for the first time. The company is working with Nova Credit as its distribution partner so that the proprietary, cash-flow-based measure can sit inside the underwriting systems many lenders already use.
Consumers will not need to create new logins or connect additional bank accounts. Cash App Score is built from first-party activity across the Cash App ecosystem.
It incorporates spending and saving patterns, paycheck deposits, peer-to-peer transfers, and repayment history on products such as Cash App Borrow and Afterpay.
Unlike conventional scores that lean heavily on older credit-file data, this model updates with current behavior and is intended to give a more current view of financial health.
The score has already begun appearing for customers inside the app’s Money tab, where users can see what influences the number and what actions might improve it.
Early usage has been high, with many people returning to check it within the first month.
Users will control whether and how the score is shared with third-party lenders; Cash App will handle consent and notifications itself.
Block says the same technology already drives its own consumer-lending decisions.
On Cash App Borrow it has allowed 38 percent more approvals at the same loss rate compared with traditional scoring.
Internal analysis also points to the potential for 30 percent more auto-loan approvals and 28 percent more credit-card approvals at comparable loss rates.
Roughly 70 percent of active Borrow customers have FICO scores below 580, a group that conventional models often underserve.
Cash App reaches a large younger audience as well: more than half of U.S. 18- to 25-year-olds use the app monthly, many of whom have thin or no traditional credit files.
Through Nova Credit’s Cash Flow Intelligence Platform, lenders will be able to apply the score in categories where Cash App itself does not compete, including credit cards, auto loans, device financing, personal loans, and tenant screening.
Nova Credit co-founder and CEO Misha Esipov described the addition as a way for lenders to obtain a richer, near-real-time picture of tens of millions of credit-seeking Americans.
Juan Hernandez, Block’s head of credit and underwriting, said the company created the score to capture financial activity that the traditional system often misses and that the partnership lets lenders use trusted infrastructure while customers remain informed and in control of their data.
The move follows earlier pilots that gave select customers visibility into their scores and a waitlist for potential lending partners.
Block has originated more than $100 billion in consumer credit since acquiring Afterpay in 2022 and positions the score as a way for people to put their own financial history to work on their own terms.
Availability to outside lenders remains subject to consumer permission, applicable law, and regulatory requirements. Block has stated it does not currently operate as a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.