Ash Gupta, former President and Chief Risk Officer at Amex, joins Board of Nova Credit
LAS VEGAS, Oct. 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MONEY20/20 -- Nova Credit, a San Francisco-based financial technology company, announced today that former American Express President of Global Credit Risk and Information Management Ash Gupta has joined its Board of Directors. Nova Credit is a cross-border consumer credit reporting agency that directly integrates with leading credit bureaus around the world. Using its proprietary technology, Nova standardizes, translates, and structures raw international credit data so that it can be used to evaluate the creditworthiness of consumers moving to the USA from other countries. More information can be found at www.novacredit.com.
Nova Credit solves a problem long overlooked by the worldwide financial services industry: How to extend credit to new arrivals to America, many of whom have great home-country credit histories, and who come to the U.S. for high-paying jobs or university enrollments? In the United States alone, the foreign-born population of over 46 million people has little access to credit upon arrival, which translates into hefty deposits for housing, cash for automobile purchases, slowly building credit with starter credit cards, and using prepaid phones.
In announcing his new role with Nova Credit, Gupta said, “When arriving in the U.S., these consumers are in immediate need of financial products and are what we call highly “credit active.” It’s time that the industry recognizes these consumers for the credit they have earned in their home countries, so that they don’t have to start at the bottom building credit upon arrival.”
Gupta, himself an immigrant from India, has long been troubled by the systematic problems caused by the inability to access international credit data. “Given the attractive demographics of this segment, this new-to-country population presents a new, low-risk market opportunity for U.S. lenders to acquire a new and large customer base and be their first card in wallet,” said Gupta. In addition, when immigrants arrive in the U.S. holding no existing domestic financial products, lenders are the best position to meet their needs efficiently, avoiding large marketing and switching costs from competitors.
“We’re absolutely delighted to have Ash join the Board of Nova,” said Nova Credit co-founder and CEO Misha Esipov. “Not only did Ash help invent the overall credit analytics industry through his work with American Express, but he cares deeply about our mission of supporting millions of immigrants with fair and equal access to credit.”
Esipov continued, “We’ve found that consumers who are able to access their credit histories using Nova are coming to the U.S. to stay long-term. Upon arrival, they are immediately confronted with the problem of not possessing a domestic credit history. When served well, they have the potential to become extremely loyal customers for financial institutions. New arrivals account for about 50 percent of US population growth -- developing a differentiated ability to acquire and retain this segment is critical to maintaining and even growing market share over time.”
Gupta, the former Chief Risk Officer and President of Global Credit Risk and Information Management at American Express (NYSE:AXP), brings 41 years of leadership experience to his board appointment at Nova Credit. Long regarded as a financial services industry pioneer in building forward-looking risk evaluation, control and monitoring capabilities, his work resulted in best-in-class risk management, marketing and servicing that led American Express through the great recession. Gupta is also known as a strong proponent of diversity and financial inclusion.
About Nova Credit
Nova Credit, founded at Stanford University in 2015, is a mission-driven company solving the problem of credit access for immigrants. Its underlying platform is a proprietary solution which enables immigrants to transport their credit histories around the world, fully integrated with international credit databases, allowing lenders global access through a single API. In short, it’s the global platform for financial identity mobility. Nova Credit is backed by General Catalyst, Index Ventures, First Round, NYCA, Y Combinator, and the Financial Solutions Lab at CFSI, as well as former and current executives from American Express, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, TransUnion, PayPal, Nerdwallet, LendingClub, Visa and Funding Circle.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bd908879-88df-4245-93d4-65d01e05328e