Yardi’s incorporation of cash flow scoring into its screening solution enables insight into creditworthy renters excluded by traditional credit checks

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., June 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Yardi® announced the integration of Nova Credit’s cash flow underwriting solution, Cash Atlas™, into its ScreeningWorks® Pro platform. This enables property managers to approve previously credit-invisible applicants by evaluating their ability to pay through bank data rather than traditional credit data alone.

Yardi + Nova Credit: Bringing financial inclusion to renter screening

The collaboration addresses a critical gap, as 49 million Americans, or 19% of the adult population, are either credit invisible or have an insufficient credit history for traditional scoring, according to research conducted by Oliver Wyman. This lack of traditional credit data has historically excluded millions of qualified applicants from rental housing, including gig workers, recent graduates, immigrants and young professionals, who demonstrate financial responsibility through their banking behavior rather than traditional credit products. In contrast, according to the FDIC, 95.5% of U.S. households have bank accounts, providing transaction data that can be used to assess their financial risk more accurately.

This integration marks the first at-scale application of cash flow data in tenant screening, representing a significant shift in how the rental industry evaluates applicants. Over 6 million units using ScreeningWorks Pro can now transition to more objective and inclusive assessment methods.

“Traditional credit data misses a population of financially responsible renters who simply haven’t used credit products or haven’t used them long enough,” says Patrick Hennessey, vice president at Yardi. “Cash flow data provides a full financial picture, which is more predictive of their ability to pay rent on time. This gives our clients the ability to approve more applicants while maintaining rigorous risk assessment standards.”

For property management companies, the integration offers:

Enhanced risk assessment: Access to real-time financial data that provides more accurate payment prediction than traditional credit data alone

Access to new markets: Ability to serve growing renter segments, including gig workers, young professionals and new-to-country residents

Expanded applicant pool: Connection to 49 million credit-invisible Americans, reducing vacancy rates and accelerating unit fills

For rental applicants, the benefits include: