Morses Club PLC Statement regarding FCA Announcement (8476K)

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RNS Number : 8476K

Morses Club PLC

18 December 2018

18 December 2018

Morses Club PLC

Statement regarding FCA Announcement

Morses Club PLC (the "Company"), the UK's second largest home collected credit lender, notes the announcement published by the FCA this morning.

In response, Paul Smith, CEO of Morses Club, commented:

"We are proud of the high quality service we offer our customers, consistently delivering customer satisfaction scores above 95%. Our business model already supports appropriate forbearance, and affordability checks are built into every loan for every customer. Our sophisticated IT platform is already set up to deliver many of the changes announced by the FCA today. We have advanced plans to take customer communication even further in early 2019, giving the customer multiple channels to contact us 24/7. We were glad to contribute to this consultation, thank the FCA for their positive comments regarding the home credit sector, and consider that these changes are unlikely to have an adverse impact on our business."

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         Tel: +44 (0) 20 
  Joint Broker)                                  7886 2500 
  Richard Gray / Fabien Holler / Atholl 
  Tweedie (Corporate Finance) 
  Charles Leigh-Pemberton (Corporate Broking) 
 finnCap                                        Tel: +44 (0) 20 
  Jonny Franklin-Adams / Emily Watts /           7220 0500 
  Anthony Adams (Corporate Finance) 
  Tim Redfern / Richard Chambers (Corporate 
  Broking) 
 Camarco                                        Tel: +44 (0) 20 
  Ed Gascoigne-Pees / Jennifer Renwick           3757 4984 
  / Kimberley Taylor 
 

Notes to Editors

About Morses Club

Morses Club is the second largest UK Home Collected Credit (HCC) lender with 230,000 customers and 1,942 agents across 98 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 95% 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 GBP209 billion in February 2018(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 J Bank of England Money & Credit Report February 2018)

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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December 18, 2018 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT)