HSBC invests $10m in Nova Credit

By Daniel Lanyon on Thursday 29 September 2022

Alternative LendingDigital Banking

Nova Credit is used by American Express, Verizon, SoFi, Yardi and now HSBC.

HSBC invests $10m in Nova Credit
Image source: Nicky Goulimis, Collin Galster, Misha Espov/Nova Credit

HSBC has invested $10m into cross-border credit bureau Nova Credit. 

The investment was made through HSBC Ventures, who now join the likes of Kleiner Perkins, Canapi Ventures, General Catalyst and Index Ventures, and executives from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Citi who also have backed Nova Credit.

The global bank will also adopt its data product Credit Passport to help it lend to customers new to a country and lacking a credit history, allowing HSBC to make more real-time application approvals responsibly.

HSBC has already deployed the Nova Credit platform in Singapore in May but the bank has a global rollout planned. 

Initially, it is focused on thousands of new-to-Singapore customers with credit history in India but the bank intends to expand the coverage of the solution to include customers with a credit history in Australia, the United Kingdom and the Philippines this year and to more country bureaus in 2023

“Opening up a world of opportunity, sits at the core of HSBC’s purpose, and we’re always passionate about identifying new ways to solve problems faced by our International customers,” said Taylan Turan, Group Head of Retail Banking and Strategy, Wealth and Personal Banking at HSBC. 

“Accessing credit in a new market can be a challenge and is something we’ve been helping customers with for years," Turan added. 

Nova Credit, which launched in 2016, has relationships with credit bureaus in over 20 countries, meaning it can help lenders with loan decisions from immigrants and others lacking local credit files. 

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