£85m issued to customers by listed home credit lender

West Yorkshire-based home collected credit lender, Morses Club, issued £85.5m worth of credit in the 27 weeks to 31 August 2019.

The Birstall headquartered business, which currently services 224,000 customers has released its latest trading update, noting that it performed well in the period with strong progress on the development of its product diversification strategy. 

The update adds: “Trading conditions in our core HCC market remain in line with the Board’s expectations, with total credit issued remaining broadly at the same level when compared to the first half of 2018 at £85.5m (H1 2018: £85.7m).

“Cash collections were up 5% compared to the first half of 2018 (H1 2018: 11.9%). Total customer numbers of 224,000 at 31 August 2019 have remained largely stable (H1 2018: 229,000), with the gross loan book also remaining stable with 0.2% growth (H1 2018: 6.1% growth).”

The business added that it was progressing well with broadening its digital offering, noting that the introduction of a wider range of digital products will enable it to capture a larger share of the non-standard credit market.

Morses Club said it had welcomed Andrew Hayward to the company as CFO in July. He brings significant technological and digital payments expertise.

Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the business, said: “We are pleased by the performance of the business over the period.

“Morses Club continues to make strong progress on the development of our product diversification strategy, tailored for our customers across the non-standard credit market. We are fully engaged with ensuring that we effectively consolidate our new acquisitions into the Group in line with our principles of financial prudence and excellent customer service.  

“We are fully committed to developing a wider portfolio of products in line with the changing credit needs of our customers and the wider market.

“We successfully launched our new customer portal earlier in the year, and now have about 27,000 customers in Morses Club who can access their account details digitally, whilst still having the face-to-face service from an agent we have always provided.    

“The company is trading in line with expectations and we look forward to the second half of the year with confidence.”