Nicholas Isaacs

White Oak. Non-Bank Lender to SMEs offering unsecured loans, secured loans, asset finance, and invoice finance. London.  

Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, SMF3, SMF16, SMF17 April 2020 – Present

• Chair of the Risk Committee and founder of the Credit Committee.
• Responsible for Enterprise Risk Management, which included risk assessment, controls and mitigation plans.
• Responsible for compliance oversight for regulated and non-regulated activity.
• Delivered the policies, systems, and processes to originate a £390M CBILS (Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme) portfolio from scratch in six months.
• Developed and implemented a third-party rule engine (Provenir), enabling automated decision-making and achieving MVP rule engine build in four months.
• Established a ‘New Activity Forum’ for IT demand streamlining, ensuring cross-functional alignment and optimal resource deployment.

Future Finance. Private Student Loans. London.  

Chief Credit Risk Officer. Sept 2019 – April 2020

• Built a motivated credit risk and business intelligence team across London, Chicago, and Dublin in four months.
• Oversaw policies, procedures, models, and systems for extending private student loans.

Elevate Credit International. Consumer Lending. London.  

Vice-President Credit Risk. Dec 2016 – Sept 2019

• Transitioned UK credit risk from the US parent company, building a 12-person UK credit risk team.
• Responded to an FCA investigation, providing credit risk models and strategy assurances.
• Delivered non-linear underwriting models enabling 18% revenue growth in 2018.
• Re-architected the risk decision platform (Provenir) for future growth using Agile software development.
• Managed third-party relationships and supported the company IPO on the NYSE in April 2017.

Premium Credit Limited. Insurance Premium Finance. UK.  

Head of Credit Risk. Dec 2014 – Dec 2016

• Led a 50-member Credit Risk department, delivering digitization and automation improvements and originating £4B annually.
• Secretary of the Credit and Counterparty Risk Committee.
• Delivered exceptional portfolio metrics with below-budget net loss provisions.

American Express. London, UK Head of Underwriting. Jul 2012 – Dec 2014

• Underwrote the $18B billings UK consumer portfolio, delivering 15% growth.
• Generated $200M AR through proactive line increase campaigns.

American Express. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Chief Credit Officer. Jan 2011 – Jul 2012

• Launched consumer lending and migrated the Account Receivable platform.

American Express. Auckland, New Zealand. Chief Credit Officer. Jan 2008 – Jan 2011

• Managed the NZ portfolio through the 2008 recession, driving performance and stemming losses.
• Delivered $24.4M recoveries in 2010.

American Express. Phoenix, USA. Senior Manager, Acquisition Optimization. May 2007 – Jan 2008

• Created performance dashboards for cross-market acquisition budget evaluation.

American Express. Phoenix, USA. Senior Manager, Underwriting. Apr 2003 – May 2007

• Delivered $400M AR in 2005 by optimizing eligibility, segmentation, and line assignment methodologies.

American Express. Brighton, UK. 

Risk Manager for EMEA. Sep 2001 – Apr 2003  

Six Sigma Blackbelt. Jan 2001 – Sep 2001  

Marketing and New Product Development. Sep 1999 – Jan 2001  

Graduate Program. Sep 1998 – Sep 1999

• BA (Hons) Business Studies, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, 1998