Scotiabank is helping recent immigrants to Canada settle into their new lives faster with the expansion of its partnership with Nova Credit1, the leading cross-border credit bureau operating in Canada. Through this partnership, Scotiabank is helping newcomers from select countries2 with the opportunity to access higher credit limits, by allowing them to use their credit history from their original home country when applying online for increased credit limits.

Credit invisibility, or lack of a credit record, can be a huge barrier to credit for those entering Canada, as access to the formal credit system traditionally requires existing local credit history. According to a Statistics Canada report3 that examined data from 2015-2019, approximately 26% of credit-invisible economic families in Canada were immigrants and those who had been in Canada for less than two years were almost twice as likely to be credit-invisible than those born in Canada.