Block Opens Cash App Score to Outside Lenders via Nova Credit

Block, Inc. (XYZ ) said on September 1, 2026 that it will open its Cash App Score to external lenders for the first time, naming Nova Credit as a distribution partner that will deliver the score through its Cash Flow Intelligence Platform. The announcement, dated from Oakland, California, states that the partnership will make Cash App’s proprietary, cash flow-based credit score available within the underwriting workflows lenders already use, with no new consumer credentialing required.

Cash App Score, which has begun rolling out to customers, draws on millions of real-time, first-party signals from across the Cash App ecosystem, including spending, saving, repayment behavior, paycheck deposits, and peer-to-peer activity. Block characterizes the result as a detailed, near real-time picture of a person’s financial health that, unlike traditional credit scores, does not look back exclusively at credit history and instead reflects a customer’s broader historical and current financial behavior.

Within Cash App, customers can see their score on the Money Tab, understand what drives it, and take steps to improve it. Block reported that within 30 days of rollout, 55 percent of customers returned to check their score, citing internal data. Customers will set their own preferences for whether and how their score is shared with third-party lending partners, with Cash App managing notifications and consent directly and no third-party logins required.

Underwriting Performance Inside Block’s Lending Products

According to Block, the technology behind Cash App Score powers underwriting across all of its consumer lending products. In Cash App Borrow, where the technology has run longest, it approves 38 percent more customers at the same loss rate compared with traditional credit scores. Roughly 70 percent of active Borrow customers hold FICO scores below 580, a population Block describes as underserved by conventional models, at a target repayment rate. Block’s analysis across additional categories indicates the potential to approve 30 percent more auto loans and 28 percent more credit card applications at comparable loss rates versus traditional methods.

Block’s white paper, Block’s Modern Approach to Credit, provides the underlying figures. At a fixed loss threshold, Cash App’s underwriting model approved 88 percent of customers, compared with 64 percent from a bureau-based approach. The paper also states that Cash App Borrow’s average repayment rates exceed 97 percent, and that more than 9 million actives have accessed nearly $15 billion in loans of between $20 and $1,000 through the product.

Block also describes the score as more than an individual creditworthiness assessment. The company states that the technology tracks consumer financial health in aggregate and in near real time, giving it a continuous read on how macroeconomic conditions affect its portfolio, and allowing it to model scenarios and adjust credit policy dynamically rather than relying on lagging indicators. For lenders, Block states, the Cash App Score is not a static signal because it is built on infrastructure that continuously adapts to economic conditions, the same infrastructure Block relies on to manage its own portfolio.

“At Block, we believe people should be able to use their own financial history to unlock opportunity, on their terms,” said Juan Hernandez, Head of Credit and Underwriting at Block. He said the company built Cash App Score to see financial activity the traditional credit system misses, and that the Nova Credit partnership puts that capability in lenders’ hands through infrastructure they already trust.

Distribution Scope and Lender Verticals

Through Nova Credit’s network, lenders will be able to incorporate the Cash App Score into underwriting across verticals including credit cards, auto lending, device financing, personal lending, and tenant screening, all areas where Cash App does not compete. The score will provide lenders a comprehensive, near real-time view of a consumer’s ability to pay, and, used alongside Nova Credit’s Cash Atlas product, will add a layer of cash flow context through a single integration, according to the companies. Nova Credit also brings consumer-reporting infrastructure, an FCRA-compliance framework, and an established lender network to the arrangement.

“By bringing the Cash App Score into Nova Credit’s Cash Flow Intelligence Platform, we’re giving lenders a unique tool to develop a richer, near real-time view of tens of millions of credit-seeking Americans,” said Misha Esipov, Co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit.

Nova Credit’s own announcement of the partnership, also dated September 1, 2026, states that Cash App has 58 million monthly transacting actives, more than half of whom are between 18 and 25 years old. Nova Credit describes itself as a cash flow intelligence platform supporting more than 7,000 businesses, including Chase, HSBC, SoFi, AppFolio (APPF ), and Yardi.

Nova Credit and Block said they will share more about the partnership at the Cash Flow Intelligence Summit, an annual gathering of consumer lending leaders, in New York City on September 10, 2026.