Creditinfo Partners With VisionFund International to Provide Analytics and Automation Solutions
Creditinfo Group, the leading global service provider for credit information and risk management solutions, today announces a multi-market partnership with VisionFund International to provide analytics and automation solutions throughout their global Microfinance Network.
Creditinfo’s credit risk analytics and automation solution will help VisionFund to expand their customer base whilst controlling costs. This will enable VisionFund to increase financial inclusion and improve economic conditions for lower income clients around the world.
Creditinfo will draw upon its global and regional experts to support the implementation of these solutions over a three-year period. Initially, Creditinfo will provide its solutions to six of VisionFund’s markets with a view to extending them to additional VisionFund’s markets in due course.
Paul Randall, CEO at Creditinfo said: “We are delighted to have been selected by VisionFund International to provide IDM Decision Automation solution to their global network of MFIs (Microfinance institutions). Our understanding and experience of working across over 20 markets is strongly aligned with VisionFund’s experience as one of the largest multinational networks of MFIs with its operations spanning 28 countries and reaching over 1 million active customers. We are excited about the journey ahead and helping VisionFund realize its goal of enabling clients to grow their livelihoods and secure their futures.”
Karen Lewin, Director of Credit Risk at Vision Fund International said: “With Creditinfo’s solution, we will increase our outreach, and improve both lending efficiency and our credit risk assessment capabilities, to better meet the needs of all our customers. Creditinfo’s team of global and local experts will provide us with the level of support we need to achieve these goals and increase financial inclusion in the markets where we operate.”
For information visit www.creditinfo.com
Creditinfo Group announces new majority shareholder
Creditinfo welcomes Levine Leichtman Capital Partners as new majority investor
LONDON, UK, 8 March 2021 – Creditinfo Group, the leading global credit information and decision analytics provider, today announces that the private equity firm, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (LLCP) has become its new majority shareholder. The firm will help Creditinfo Group to keep expanding operations and support financial institutions with a full suite of best-in-class credit risk management tools.
The announcement marks another significant milestone in Creditinfo’s growth journey, as world leader in providing decision analytics and risk mitigation solutions to lenders, central banks and SMEs continues to expand. The company’s combination of international know-how and local market support, continues to fuel demand for Creditinfo’s decision analytics solutions, which use traditional and evolving data sets to help customers take an intelligent and informed approach to risk and lending decisions.
This new shareholder composition brings new impetus and direction to the company’s growth plans while also maintaining continuity for the business, with Creditinfo founder Reynir Grétarsson retaining his board seat and a significant minority shareholding.
Well-respected industry veteran, Paul Randall – who joined Creditinfo in 2007 – will lead the company through its next phase of growth as the newly appointed Group CEO, working closely with Reynir Grétarsson and LLCP.
“This investment shows Creditinfo’s potential and commitment to enable corporates, SMEs and individuals be active players in the economy” commented Paul Randall, CEO at Creditinfo Group. “We now have a new, eager and dynamic investor on board that will help us increase market penetration and expansion. They also bring a wealth of corporate experience running international businesses that will help us further strengthen our contribution to the credit risk and fintech industry. Our unique position in both advanced and emerging markets and the mix of technology our solution can incorporate give us great hopes for the future with considerable growth potential.”
Erik Nobel, Managing Director at LLCP, commented, “We are excited to support Creditinfo’s expansion and growth through this investment. LLCP’s significant experience investing in companies around the world will enable Creditinfo to further establish its leadership in the credit risk and fintech industry and support to its international client base.”
David Cowan, Senior Managing Director at LLCP, added, “We are thrilled to partner with the Creditinfo team and look forward to supporting the Company’s strategic growth plans. We believe that Creditinfo holds a unique position within their market and are confident in their continued success.”
-ENDS-
About Creditinfo
Established in 1997 and headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland, Creditinfo is a provider of credit information and risk management solutions worldwide. As one of the fastest-growing companies in its field, Creditinfo facilitates access to finance, through intelligent information, software and decision analytics solutions.
With more than 30 credit bureaus running today, Creditinfo has the most considerable global presence in this field of credit risk management, with a significantly greater footprint than competitors. For decades it has provided business information, risk management and credit bureau solutions to some of the largest, lenders, governments and central banks globally to increase financial inclusion and generate economic growth by allowing credit access for SMEs and individuals.
For more information, please visit www.creditinfo.com
Media Contacts:
Matt Silver
Babel Agency for Creditinfo Group creditinfo@babelpr.com
+44 (0)7769 266 452
About Levine Leichtman Capital Partners
Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, LLCP is a middle-market private equity firm with a 37-year track record of investing across various targeted sectors, including franchising, professional services, education and engineered products. Since inception, LLCP has managed approximately $11.7 billion of institutional capital across 14 investment funds and has invested in over 90 portfolio companies. LLCP utilizes a differentiated Structured Private Equity investment strategy, combining debt and equity capital investments in portfolio companies.
LLCP’s global team of dedicated investment professionals is led by seven partners who have worked at LLCP for an average of 21 years. The firm currently manages approximately $7.8 billion of assets – including its most recent flagship fund, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners VI, L.P., which closed in 2018 with $2.5 billion of committed capital, and its most recent European fund, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners Europe II SCSp, which closed in 2020 with €463 million of committed capital. LLCP has offices in Los Angeles, London, The Hague, Stockholm, New York, Chicago, Charlotte and Miami.
Media Contacts:
Mark Semer or Ross Lovern Kekst
CNC +1 (917) 439-3507 or +1 (917) 842-7205
Assessing credit risk of SME’s and how credit scoring can transform SME’s
Paul Randall was recently at the Kafalah SME Financing Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and he tackled these 2 questions during the panel discussion.
What are the specific challenges of assessing credit risk of SMEs as compared to larger firms and how can fintech can help lenders address those?
Paul Randall at the Kafalah SME Financing Conference 2019
Kafalah SME Financing Conference was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia where they discussed current financing for SME’s in Saudi Arabia,how to build relationships between private and public FIs, government agencies and legislative bodies that support financing, current and future finance opportunities for specific business sectors and how to increase awareness of the most current international practices for financing SMEs.
Supporting a Better Understanding of Credit Risk Management in Tanzania
Creditinfo Tanzania, in cooperation with the Creditinfo Academy, recently delivered a 2 day “Introduction to Risk Management” training course in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
The interactive workshop took place at the Ledger Plaza Beach Hotel on 21st and 22nd October 2014 with attendees including senior bankers, micro finance and other professionals responsible for maintaining top quality loan portfolios, identifying risk management opportunities and designing financial solutions for clients in an evolving credit environment.
Invited to join IFC in Morocco
We were invited to join IFC in Morocco last week at the 5th Financial Infrastructure and Risk Management Training for MENA and African Regions. Reynir Grétarsson (CEO Creditingo group Hf) – pictured, Paul Randall (Director of Business Development Creditinfo International GmbH), Dirce Varela (CEO, Creditinfo Cape Verde) and Edwin Urasa (Business Development Manager, Creditinfo Tanzania) attended the training.
IFC advised the training was very successful; from a course review of the feedback forms received it looks that on a scale 0-5 over 90% of participants rated the training 4 or 5 (with 5 being the highest).
Players of the Month: Samuel White & Paul Randall
This month we’d like to recognise Sam and Paul for all the air miles they have recently clocked up.
Seriously though, their jobs may sound very glamorous, travelling all over the globe to meet the different operational sites and share best practice within the Group and meeting new / potential clients etc. The reality is, these guys can be getting out of bed at an unearthly hour, travelling for 20 hrs or more, delivering presentations having only had a few hours sleep, living out of a suitcase, arriving home in the middle of the night….. and don’t forget they are leaving their loved ones at home.
There are a number of other people within Creditinfo who equally travel a lot promoting Creditinfo around the globe and can equate with the trials and tribulations of travelling. We’d like to thank you guys too, you know who you are!Annual Central Asia & Caucasus Microfinance Forum? 16 – 17 Oct 2014 – Tbilisi, Georgia.
Have you registered yet for the Annual Central Asia & Caucasus Microfinance Forum? 16 – 17 Oct 2014 – Tbilisi, Georgia. Paul Randall, Chairman of the Board, Creditinfo Georgia, will be speaking on “How Credit Bureaus adding value to data supports MFIs”
Please come along and meet Paul …
For more info visit: http://www.uni-global.eu/en/event/2014-163
Player of the Month: Kazakhstan
With the support of the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan, 1CB Kazakhstan recently hosted a very successful event in Almaty dedicated to discussing the introduction of legal restrictions on the leverage ratio (KDN) and limiting growth of unsecured lending, which entered into force in Kazakhstan from 1 April 2014. The relevance of the event was confirmed by the interest of more than one hundred representatives from the banks, the National Bank of Kazakhstan, financial institutions and the business media.
Ruslan Omarov, CEO, 1CB, Kanat Khalilov, Senior Risk Manager, 1CB and Paul Randall, Business Development Director, Creditinfo International spoke at the event. You can watch a recording of Paul & Kanat’s presentations on the internet which they kindly repeated for the Creditinfo Academy.
More about Azerbaijan
As you may remember, in November, we told you that we were the finalists, along with CRIF, for a tender to become the operator of the First Credit Bureau in Azerbaijan.
Before selecting the winner, the Executive Committee wanted to clarify a few issues relating to the hardware of each organisation. In December, Tomáš Tichý,Radek Bittner, Paul Randall and Reynir gave a presentation in Baku. According to Paul his presentation was fantastic and Reynir’s was OK! (how cheeky!).
Anyway, the Committee now want to visit both organisations, so at the end of January they will be going to IBCH in Kiev and to CRIF HQ in Bologna. Afterwhich they will advise who will receive the tender. Watch this space….
On a side note, we bumped into William Haigh as we were leaving the IFC office.
