Nova Credit helps lenders acquire the data they need to assess immigrants seeking credit or loans. Now the company itself is going global.
On Thursday, it announced that Nova Credit UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of the San Francisco-based Nova Credit, received permissions from the Financial Conduct Authority necessary to operate in the United Kingdom. This means financial services providers in the U.K. will be able to incorporate credit data from other countries translated by Nova Credit into digestible information they can use to approve immigrants to the U.K. for credit and other products.
“The U.K. is home to one of the world’s largest and most diverse immigrant communities,” said Misha Esipov, co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit, in a press release. This consumer segment is important to any business looking to maintain and grow market share, he said.
Nova Credit launched in the U.S. in 2016. Since then, it has partnered with credit bureaus in more than 20 countries and deployed its technology to convert this data into scores and reports that U.S. lenders can consider as part of their decision-making process. Its customers include American Express, HSBC, Verizon, the United Nations Federal Credit Union and SoFi.
The company first announced its intent to expand to Europe in April 2022, and that it was seeking authorization from the FCA to set up shop in the U.K. The FCA confirmed in July that it would bring in a new Consumer Duty, or higher standards of consumer protection that financial services firms must adhere to, including easy ways to switch or cancel products and clear information about products and services that is not buried in fine print. The financial regulator said at the time it would give firms 12 months to implement the new rules for all new and existing products and services that are currently on sale.
