According to the banks systems I simply didn’t exist
Mifundo's Chief Product Officer, Keiu Kalaus, shares her personal story
Hi, my name is Keiu Kalaus and I’m the Chief Product Officer at Mifundo and I'm here to tell my story.
How is it possible that in 2025 we still can’t move from country to country within Europe without hassle and without starting over? What do I mean by starting over? People’s credit data is still stuck in their home country whenever they relocate. Whether it’s because of work, family or other reasons. Have you ever wondered what it’s like when you plan to move? It’s painful. Have you thought about the stories of those who change countries and face a bank rejecting them simply because there is no proof of how strong their credit history is?
At Mifundo, we know this pain very closely. We’ve lived it and we’ve seen it.
I understand the challenges of cross-border borrowing because I’ve experienced them myself. After spending 16 years in Spain, where I built my career working for the Estonian bank called Bigbank and maintained a flawless credit history, I decided to move back to Estonia to work at Bigbank’s headquarters in Tallinn. What I did not expect was that my strong financial track record would count for nothing.
Despite years of responsible borrowing and a solid reputation in Spain and even though I continued working for the same company after relocating, I was unable to secure a loan in Estonia. The reason was simple yet deeply frustrating. In the eyes of Estonian banks, I had no financial history at all. “In the banks’ systems, I simply didn’t exist," I often say. It was as if those 16 years had been erased.
What should have been a smooth homecoming turned into a roadblock, highlighting a serious gap in how credit data travels across borders. This experience became one of the driving forces behind my work at Mifundo, where I now help ensure that others do not face the same invisible barrier.
While living in Spain, I met my loving husband, Ira. After building our life together there, five years ago we made the decision to move to Estonia, my home country, to start a new chapter. Estonia offered new opportunities, a sense of belonging and the promise of stability. Naturally, buying a solid and reliable house in Estonia seemed like the next step. We were ready, financially responsible and excited about this new phase of life.
But the moment we tried to take that step, we faced an unexpected and frustrating barrier. Despite our stable incomes and flawless credit histories from Spain, Estonian banks could not see any of it. Our credit profiles were invisible in the local system. In the eyes of the banks, we were complete unknowns. No matter how financially sound we were in reality, on paper we simply did not exist. And this was only 5 years ago.
That invisible wall changed everything. Instead of choosing the best home for our needs and budget, we were forced to consider limited options. We had to choose between renting or buying something far below the quality we had originally planned for. The only solution banks offered was to come back after two years, once we had built up a local credit record. But what were we supposed to do in the meantime? Where were we expected to live while waiting for the system to catch up with our lives?
This was not just an inconvenience. It was a clear sign of how outdated and disconnected the financial system is when people move between countries. For us, this was not only about a loan. It was about fairness, access and the right to be treated as the same responsible individuals we had always been.
Eventually, we settled for a house outside of Tallinn, where I worked and where we had planned to live. It wasn’t our ideal home, but it was one we could access given the limitations. The house needed significant renovation work, which required time, energy and additional investment. The work is still ongoing and in the end, the total cost will end up being about the same as if we had bought a home that better matched our expectations from the beginning. We did what we could within the system, but it came at a price.
Unfortunately, our story is not unique. Millions of Europeans relocate or return to their home countries every year and become financially invisible to local banks because their credit data remains abroad.
This blind spot in lending is exactly what we at Mifundo are solving. Our platform connects and standardizes credit information across over 70% of European markets, enabling banks to confidently assess and serve customers like me - relocating professionals, returning expats, property buyers abroad and many more.
By offering a shared infrastructure and streamlined access to cross-border credit data via API or manual processing, Mifundo removes the barriers for banks to expand lending opportunities while reducing risk.
Explore Mifundo’s platform today: mifundo.com/for-banks
