Nova Credit to Supply Consumer-Permissioned Cash Flow Data to SoFi

Digital financial services provider SoFi will leverage credit infrastructure and analytics firm Nova Credit’s consumer-permissioned data and analytics solution, Cash Atlas, to bolster its loan underwriting.

With Cash Atlas, SoFi will be able to use cash flow data to gain a real-time and granular view of a consumer’s financial health and generate a more complete risk profile, Nova Credit said in a Tuesday (Oct. 15) press release.

Because SoFi will be able to better assess credit risk, it will be able to improve credit eligibility for consumers across the credit spectrum and enhance its members’ experience, according to the release.

“We couldn’t be more excited to continue working with SoFi to enable to enable the power of cash flow analytics to help more people access the financial products they need to achieve their goals,” Misha Esipov, co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit, said in the release.

Cash flow-based underwriting can broaden lenders’ horizons and expand financial inclusion, PYMNTS reported in May.

While credit reporting has traditionally been a backward-looking activity, real-time and ongoing account-level activity can give lenders a more accurate picture of how consumers and businesses are using and bringing in cash and how they might satisfy the obligations of taking on new credit.

In another, separate partnership, Nova Credit teamed up with MoneyLion in September to enable lenders using MoneyLion’s hosted decisioning engine to integrate Nova Credit’s cash flow underwriting data and analytics.

“Cash flow data is essential for understanding consumers more holistically and unlocking more ways to provide consumers with the services they need,” MoneyLion Chief Product Officer Tim Hong said in a press release at the time.

Also in September, Nova Credit launched a partnership with data access network Akoya, aiming to help lenders employ cash flow and income analytics for better credit decisioning via Akoya’s bank data connectivity and Nova’s analytics and consumer reporting agency expertise.

“With increased access to trusted data and insights, lenders will be able to more effectively approve new customers, offer new products and create greater consumer loyalty, all without increasing their risk appetite,” the companies said in a press release.