SAV Credit

SAV Credit is a United Kingdom-based provider of credit cards and financial services products to people with poor credit ratings who have difficulty in obtaining mainstream financial products.  Its lead product is the ‘aqua’ Mastercard.  SAV Credit estimates that its market represents around 20% of the population – approximately 10 million people.  It accesses this market through partnerships with other organisations, basing its credit decisions on information-based risk management techniques. 

SAV Credit was founded in 2001 by its Chief Executive, Richard Langstaff, who had previously held senior investment roles with Citibank and Deutsche Bank and formed a company that purchases and services non-performing consumer debt.  Private equity firm Palamon Capital Partners invested in SAV Credit from 2002.  With established financial services beginning to pull back from its market, SAV Credit seized the opportunity to acquire around 338,000 new accounts and the ‘marbles’ credit card brand from HSBC in October 2007.  At the same time, Palamon Capital Partners asked Skillcapital  to identify a Managing Director who could help the business to move to the next stage of its growth.

After a search that took in the United States and the United Kingdom, we recruited Allan Silverman, who had worked in financial services for over 20  years with Barclaycard, Barclays Bank and Citigroup.  Allan had run marketing and credit risk functions as well as managing consumer finance and credit card businesses, and was latterly the Managing Director of UK cards at Citigroup.  Allan joined SAV Credit as a Managing Director in July 2008.

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