HSBC UK announced it is making its UK mortgages accessible for international homebuyers by introducing tech that makes it easier for customers to leverage their credit history for their UK mortgage application.
With newcomers to the UK and global customers facing various challenges and delays when trying to leverage overseas credit history to apply for various types of loans, HSBC UK is the first “major bank” to launch an initiative allowing mortgage applicants to retrieve their credit history for a UK mortgage application.
This provides a process for non-resident customers from eligible regions (Australia, Switzerland, the Philippines, and the USA) and those who have relocated to the UK within the last 12 months from one of 14 eligible regions.
This will at first be available on mortgage applications made directly to the bank.
Previously, international customers were required to obtain and translate their own credit reports prior to application, which is “a process that was often time-consuming and potentially costly.”
This new digital service, brings various credit bureaus connections together in one place, eliminating the need to find, approach, and complete requests to separate bureaux.
This will result in a “potentially cost-saving” experience, where a report will be generated in English and added automatically to the mortgage application.
This offering, through a partnership with the cross-border credit bureau, Nova Credit, follows a similar move last year by the bank which offered international customers the ability to “use their credit histories from a previous location to help them apply for an HSBC UK credit card.”
Lending options with HSBC UK for foreign nationals have also been improved, with applicants applying through their mortgage broker able to “access up to 95% LTV tiers, where any applicant has leave to remain in the UK or has EU settled status.”
HSBC UK says that it currently serves more than 14.7 million active customers across the UK, supported by 23,700 colleagues.
HSBC UK offers a complete range of retail banking and wealth management to personal and private banking customers, as well as “commercial banking for small to medium businesses and large corporates.”
HSBC UK is a “ring fenced” bank and ‘wholly owned subsidiary” of HSBC Holdings plc.
Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics firm that enables businesses to grow responsibly by “harnessing alternative credit data.”
The firm is a CRA that leverages its data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders “fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics.”
Nova Credit reportedly offers access to the fragmented ecosystem of consumer financial data and transforms it into “compliant, actionable risk analytics” via a suite of solutions designed to increase conversion via expanded “coverage, speed, and reliability.”
