Ali Pourdad, Progressa Co-Founder and CEO Joins the Canadian Lenders Association as Advocacy & Regulatory Committee Co-Chair
Toronto, Canada December 21, 2018 – The Canadian Lenders Association (CLA), is pleased to announce that effective December 14, 2018, Ali Pourdad, Co-Founder and CEO of Progressa, was appointed to its Advocacy and Regulatory Committee as Co-Chair. The CLA was established for businesses involved in provisioning financial services and as a platform to support growth and innovation in the consumer and small business lending marketplace.
Gary Schwartz, President of the CLA said: “Over the past year, Ali Pourdad has played a leadership role appearing with the Canadian Lenders Association at the Senate Hearing on Bill S-237. We are excited to have Ali co-chair the Advocacy and Regulatory Committee. In 2019, we will continue to support an open marketplace – one which encourages innovation, the use of technology and healthy competition to advance the needs of borrowers and provide the necessary products and services in the Canada.”
The CLA currently has 50-member companies which are collectively focused on fostering an environment of competition and innovation in Canadian lending. The association’s objectives are to create a collaborative environment between lenders and regulators and to ensure transparency and increased financial literacy for all Canadians.
Ali Pourdad commented: “The Canadian regulatory environment for alternative lenders is actively evolving. At Progressa, we have been privileged to be at the forefront of much of this evolution, and I look forward to working with this Committee to ensure that we continue to strike the correct balance of oversight that protects all Canadian consumers and businesses.”
About the Canadian Lenders Association
The Canadian Lenders Association (CLA) supports the growth of companies in the Canadian market that are in the business of lending, or providing other means of credit, to small businesses and individuals by non-conventional or innovative means to exchange ideas and explore ways of improving the sector; encourage principled and professional practices by innovative lenders; educate the public at large about innovative lending; encourage individual potential borrowers to be informed about the appropriateness of innovative lending to the borrowers’ circumstance; and to advocate on behalf of, and represent the interests of innovative lenders.
About the Policy Committee
The Advocacy and Regulatory Committee is one of the key Canadian Lenders Association working groups actively involved at all levels of government and with other trade associations in the marketplace. The Committee supports the following principles:
We support transparency throughout the Canadian marketplace and will support changes to legislative and regulatory frameworks that encourage and enhance transparency for borrowers.
We advocate for balanced regulatory frameworks that meet the needs of borrowers, as well as provide stable, strong and consistent environments for businesses of all sizes to successfully operate in Canada by minimizing the administrative and compliance costs for lenders.
We support an open marketplace – one which encourages innovation, the use of technology and healthy competition to advance the needs of borrowers and provide products and services to meet 21st century needs.
We support an open marketplace – one which encourages innovation, the use of technology and healthy competition to advance the needs of borrowers and provide products and services to meet 21st century needs.
Members of the CLA Advocacy and Regulatory Committee agree to build these key messages into messaging shared with government and other decision makers to promote a cohesive and united approach to major regulatory issues in the Canadian marketplace that impact or may impact – whether directly or indirectly – the business operations of CLA members.
Learn More: canadianlenders.org
About Progressa
Named by CB Insights to the 2018 Fintech 250, a list of the world’s top fintech startups, Progressa is Canada’s fastest growing financial technology lender focused on changing the way pay cheque to pay cheque Canadians access and build credit. Since 2013, our mission has been to build a socially responsible consumer finance company that encourages borrowing for the right reasons and that Canadians can be proud of. Our enterprise solutions suite, driven by the 4th Generation Progressa Score™, is built for collection agencies and point of sale finance.
We empower collection agencies to offer proactive solutions and drive healthy recoveries while protecting brand loyalty with industry leading NPS and servicing. For point of sale finance we allow platform partners and other originators to expand their merchant offerings to service non-prime consumers and achieve industry leading approval rates.
Learn more: progressa.io
Contact Info
Gary Schwartz
President CLA
canadianlenders@gmail.com
416.505.7410
Philipp Postrehovsky
Media Relations
media@progressa.com
604.657.2775