Morses Club PLC Retirement of Chief Financial Officer (8198X)

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RNS Number : 8198X

Morses Club PLC

02 May 2019

2 May 2019

Morses Club PLC

Retirement of Chief Financial Officer

Morses Club PLC ("Morses Club", or the "Company"), the UK's second largest home collected credit lender, announces that its Chief Financial Officer ("CFO"), Andy Thomson, plans to retire from his role as CFO on 1 July 2019. Andy will remain as a Non-executive Director ("NED") on the Board of Morses Club.

Andy was involved in the RCapital acquisition of Morses Club in March 2009, remaining on the Board as a Non-executive Director, with responsibility for financial management. Andy led the finance function during the acquisition and integration of Shopacheck Financial Services in 2014/15 before his appointment to full-time CFO in 2016.

A search for a suitable successor is well advanced and an announcement on the appointment will be made in due course (subject to satisfactory completion of customary checks).

Stephen Karle, Chairman of Morses Club, commented:

"Andy has been instrumental in building Morses Club into the UK's second largest HCC lender and guiding the Company through its successful flotation in 2016. His analytical skills and financial judgement have been invaluable over the past ten years. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Andy for his efforts and look forward to working with him in his capacity as a NED. The Board has conducted a thorough process to identify a suitable successor and is pleased to have attracted a number of quality candidates."

Andy Thomson, Chief Financial Officer of Morses Club, commented:

"It has been a privilege to work with Morses Club over the last ten years and see the transformation of the business into a leading lender in the non-standard finance market. I believe we offer essential products and services to our customers and I am very proud of the overwhelmingly positive feedback we receive from them. I am also proud of the Morses Club team and our culture which has always believed in treating customers fairly and I look forward to working with the Board in my new role."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

For further information

 
 Morses Club PLC                                     Tel: +44 (0) 330 
  Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer                 045 0719 
  Andy Thomson, Chief Financial Officer 
 Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Nomad and Joint        Tel: +44 (0) 20 
  Broker)                                             7886 2500 
  Richard Gray / Fabien Holler / Atholl Tweedie 
  (Corporate Finance) 
  Charles Leigh-Pemberton (Corporate Broking) 
 finnCap                                             Tel: +44 (0) 20 
  Jonny Franklin-Adams / Anthony Adams (Corporate     7220 0500 
  Finance) 
  Tim Redfern / Richard Chambers (Corporate 
  Broking) 
 Camarco                                             Tel: +44 (0) 20 
  Ed Gascoigne-Pees / Jennifer Renwick / Kimberley    3757 4984 
  Taylor 
 

Notes to Editors

About Morses Club

Morses Club is the second largest UK Home Collected Credit (HCC) lender with 235,000 customers and 2,050 agents across 95 locations throughout the UK.

The Company offers a range of loan products to its customers through its extensive self-employed agent network. The majority of the Company's borrowers are repeat customers and the Company enjoys consistently high customer satisfaction with scores of 97% or above(1) .

The Company is using technology to broaden its offering and provide new products to ensure customers can access credit with the flexibility they require. In April 2016, its cashless lending product, the Morses Club Card, was introduced, enabling its customers to buy online as well as on the high street. Dot Dot Loans, the Company's first online instalment product, was launched in March 2017.

Morses Club successfully listed on AIM in May 2016.

About the UK non-standard credit market

The UK non-standard credit market, of which UK HCC is a subset, consists of both secured and unsecured lending and is estimated to comprise around 10 million consumers(2) .

Non-standard credit is the provision of secured and unsecured credit to consumers other than through mainstream lenders. Lenders providing non-standard credit principally lend on an unsecured basis and the market is characterised by high frequency borrowing.

Since February 2014, unsecured personal lending has grown from GBP161 billion to GBP216 billion in February 2019(3) .

(1 Independent Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by Mustard 2 FCA High Cost Credit Review Technical Annex 1: CRA data analysis of UK personal debt - July 2017 3 Source: Table A5.2, Bank of England Money and Credit Bank stats February 2019)

About UK Home Collected Credit

UK HCC is considered to be a specialised segment of the broader UK non-standard credit market. UK HCC loans are typically small, unsecured cash loans delivered directly to customers' homes. Repayments are collected in person during weekly follow-up visits to customers' homes.

UK HCC is considered to be stable and well-established, with approximately 1.6 million(2) people using the services of UK HCC lenders.

(2 High Cost Credit Review ANNEX 1 - July 2017)

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May 02, 2019 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)