Oportun

Aravind R, Data Scientist , tells us what it has been like to develop his professional goals with the right balance in his life while boosting his career and helping our members have a better financial future.

A heartfelt thank you to Oportun’s True Pride Employee Resource Group (ERG) for leading our Pride Month celebration this June. 🌈    At Oportun, we proudly support our ERGs and their initiatives, as they play a crucial role in fostering an inclusive and supportive workplace. This month, True Pride ERG organized a series of engaging and educational activities that brought our team together in celebration of diversity and inclusion.    Here’s a look at some of the fantastic activities they led:  Pride Nuggets: A weekly newsletter that covered important LGBTQIA+ community topics such as allyship, equal pay, and transgender awareness.  An enlightening LGBTQIA+ Bingo session hosted by True Pride members @Gerardo Gutierrez @Jimmy Somarriba and @Denise Morales!   Wear Your Favorite Color Day: Every Friday, team members showcased their favorite colors to celebrate diversity.  True Pride Spirit Week: Special activities every day, including Pride Flag Day, Ally Dress-Up Day, Embrace Trans Identity Day, Dress as Your Favorite LGBTQIA+ Ally Music Artist Day, and Wear Pride Month Accessories Day.    We are grateful to all our ERG and team members who participated in the fun and learning. Together, we are making Oportun a more inclusive and supportive workplace for everyone. 

Our longtime partners at UnidosUS (@WeAreUnidosUS) have published the Latino Banking and Financial Health Survey, which was jointly commissioned with Oportun and conducted by our friends at BSP Research. Following on our first survey in 2022, the insights found in this second edition demonstrate the continued importance of access to safe and affordable access to financial services and products for our underserved communities. Thank you UnidosUS for your continued leadership and partnership.

Our mission at Oportun is to empower our members to build a better future. We do that using intelligent borrowing, saving and budgeting tools that can improve financial health and resilience. A big part of that is extending responsible, affordable credit to people who have limited traditional credit histories and are not well-served by mainstream finance. That process relies on our use of billions of data points – both traditional and alternative – within a sophisticated underwriting model. We are excited to announce that we are now using new cash flow underwriting tools from Plaid to further enhance our credit scoring capabilities. Oportun was one of a handful of lenders helping to beta test Plaid’s new Consumer Report  product over the past few months, and we found its categorization of consumer cash flows can meaningfully improve our ability to score applicants. We are excited to more fully leverage Plaid’s new Consumer Report now that it’s live because: ·     Pairing this alternative data with traditional credit data gives us an even more comprehensive view of an applicant’s financial behaviors, improving the accuracy of our credit decisions and outcomes. ·     Automated access to this consumer permissioned data means we no longer have to manually review related documentations before offering a credit decision – accelerating our underwriting process. ·     It provides visibility into indicators that signal when we can responsibly extend a higher loan amount for qualified applicants, information that is nonexistent in traditional credit reports. At Oportun, we take great pride in scoring 100% of the applicants who come to us. Now, using cash flow data from Plaid, we will be able to scale to approve and offer credit to even more hardworking Americans who would otherwise be excluded from the financial mainstream.  

Congratulations to Javier Villanueva, a Senior Security Manager on our Global Security Team for completing the prestigious 13-week FBI Citizen's Academy. We sat down with him to talk about his career and what the Academy is like.

As Women's History Month draws to a close, we honor women and their allies worldwide. We are inspired by those who came before us, those in the now, and those in the next generation who will continue to inspire! We want to express our gratitude to our Women's Initiative Network (WIN) Employee Resource Group (ERG), which organized many activities to honor and celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of women in our communities. Some of the highlights include: ·      Holding "Getting to Know You" sessions, including one with our VP of Member Servicing, @Veronica Semler, who shared her personal and professional path and leadership philosophy.  ·      Celebrating Women who Inspire and foster diversity, equity, and an inclusive world by sharing images across our internal channels and social media. ·      Showcasing Women in Science, like Kalpana Chawla, who became the first Indian woman in Space, and Hedy Lamarr, an actress and inventor who co-authored the technology on which modern Wi-Fi is based. ·      Wearing purple, green, or white on Women's Colors Day. Purple represents justice, dignity, and loyalty to the cause, Green symbolizes hope, and White represents purity. We want to thank all our Team Members who participated in these special moments and activities. We are proud of the WIN ERG, which fosters an inclusive and empowering environment for all. May your year be filled with recognition and appreciation and thank you for your profound impact on everyone around you.

We are thrilled to share that Oportun has been named a winner in the 2024 FinTech Breakthrough Awards for “Best Use of AI in Fintech”. This is the third time in six years that Oportun has won this prestigious industry competition, with prior wins as the “Best Consumer Lending Company” and “Best Consumer Lending Product”.   Oportun is holistically addressing two fundamental obstacles to financial resilience: adequate savings and access to responsible credit when needed. Through the use of advanced technology like AI, we have provided $17.8 billion in responsible and affordable credit, saved members more than $2.4 billion in interest and fees, and helped them set aside an average of more than $1,800 annually and more than $10 billion cumulatively in personal savings.   https://lnkd.in/dnZe54Zz

We are thrilled to share that Oportun has been named a winner in the 2024 FinTech Breakthrough Awards for “Best Use of AI in Fintech”. This is the third time in six years that Oportun has won this prestigious industry competition, with prior wins as the “Best Consumer Lending Company” and “Best Consumer Lending Product”.   Oportun is holistically addressing two fundamental obstacles to financial resilience: adequate savings and access to responsible credit when needed. Through the use of advanced technology like AI, we have provided $17.8 billion in responsible and affordable credit, saved members more than $2.4 billion in interest and fees, and helped them set aside an average of more than $1,800 annually and more than $10 billion cumulatively in personal savings.   https://lnkd.in/dnZe54Zz

The health and safety of our teammates is always our top priority, so we are very proud to have been recognized by the Mexican Institute of Social Security with the grant of a Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments (ELSSA) badge. ELSSA badges are reserved for companies that have demonstrated that they actively promote safe and healthy work environments focused on mitigating risk factors, preventing accidents at work, and encouraging healthier habits. When our people feel healthy, happy, and safe, they can more readily be at their best when serving the financial needs of our members.

We are pleased to welcome Carlos Minetti and Mohit Daswani to the Oportun Board of Directors. According to our CEO, Raul Vazquez, “Carlos and Mohit offer a wealth of experience and expertise in consumer-related financial services that will fortify our path towards profitable, sustainable growth.” https://lnkd.in/gyNxPPMw