LONDON–(COMMERCIAL WIRE)–Nova Credit UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nova Credit, has received the necessary scope of permissions to provide credit references in the UK from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Through its new passport technology, the company intends to make it easier, faster and more equitable for immigrants living in the UK to access credit products and services, which are too often out of reach.
Nova Credit UK’s parent company, Nova Credit, founded in the US, is a licensed consumer credit bureau with a mission to accelerate financial inclusion for immigrants around the world. Since its launch in 2016, the company has developed partnerships with credit bureaus in more than 20 countries, allowing millions of immigrants to bring their credit history abroad with them when applying for credit products. The company counts American Express, HSBC, Verizon, United Nations Federal Credit Union and SoFi among its global clients. Nova Credit announced its intention to expand into Europe, starting with the UK, in spring 2022.
Nova Credit’s technology unlocks consumer-authorized access to more than 2 billion credit profiles worldwide. By working with Nova Credit UK, financial service providers in the UK can now incorporate credit information from foreign bureaus as part of their credit assessment.
Misha Esipov, co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit, comments: “The UK is home to one of the largest and most diverse immigrant communities in the world; one in seven people in the UK was born abroad. We are delighted to bring Nova Credit across the Atlantic to support the next generation of UK bound migrants. This critical segment of consumers is the biggest driver of the country’s population growth and is mission critical for any company looking to maintain and grow its market share.”
Collin Galster, Non-Executive Director at Nova Credit UK, comments: “Using the Nova Passport, UK lenders will be able to understand the financial history of consumers in over 20 countries and use this information instantly to make fairer and more inclusive decisions. We are delighted with the reception we have received from the UK’s leading banks, fintechs, car lenders and telecom providers and look forward to announcing our first wave of partners in the coming months.”
Millions of creditworthy people emigrate to new countries every year. Upon arrival, these newcomers leave behind years of credit histories, ‘stuck’ in the countries they have left. Without access to your previous credit history, lenders have no choice but to automatically decline or manually process your requests for new financing. Subsequently, these people struggle to access credit-based products at fair prices, such as credit cards, car financing or telephone contracts.
Combining deep relationships with credit bureaus globally and API-driven credit risk technology, new passport extracts the established credit data of newcomers from reputable credit bureaus in their home countries and translates it into an equivalent score and report suitable for use by lenders and financial service providers in their new host country. Seamlessly and securely integrated into a financial institution’s credit application process, Nova Credit UK’s technology enables UK lenders to do more real-time application approvals responsibly and on a larger scale for people than others otherwise they would be excluded from obtaining financial access.
The immigrant population is one of the fastest growing demographic groups in the UK. The 2021 census revealed that 10 million people living in the UK today were born abroad and 40% of these moved to the UK in the last decade. Government figures show that every year more than 800,000 people receive long-term visas to work or study in the UK. These data support research from the Office for National Statistics which predicts that 100% of the UK’s annual net population growth will come from immigrants by 2035.
Matt Davies, Head of UK Market Development for Nova Credit, adds: “There is a widespread appreciation among UK financial institutions of the need to be more inclusive, and this trend will accelerate substantially this year when the FCA’s consumer rights rules come into force to help more financial services provide good results for their clients.
About Credit Nova
Nova Credit is a licensed consumer credit bureau whose products help businesses make fairer and more informed decisions on millions of “small files,” with no credit history or applicants new to the country. Nova Credit UK is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nova Credit and is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
He new passport (known as credit passport™ outside the UK) unlocks data from cross-border credit bureaus to help businesses underwrite newly arrived populations in the UK. Businesses partner with Nova Credit to approve more applicants without taking more risk, and consumers are empowered to do their best with their applications.
In the US, leading organizations such as American Express, Verizon, HSBC, SoFi and Yardi use the company’s proprietary analytics and differentiated data sources.
Nova Credit is backed by investors including Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst, Index Venture and Canapi, as well as executives from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Citi.