Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Morses Club, said “The last twelve months have been truly transformative for Morses Club. The Covid-19 pandemic forced us to innovate and accelerate our digital strategy, reconfiguring our operating model to allow us to maintain customer contact and collection activity whilst generating new lending opportunities and transitioning towards being a more complete financial services provider.”
“The Group performed resiliently and profitably, despite not being able to lend to new HCC customers for five months of the year. In HCC, we re-commenced lending to existing customers just three weeks after lockdown was announced in March 2020. 67% of lending in our HCC division is now cashless and 80% of cash is collected remotely. Despite the impact of the pandemic, we saw a significant increase in the quality of our lending, with impairment levels well below the guidance range. The fact that customer satisfaction has increased to 98% reflects our customers’ positive experience of the new remote lending model.
“I am very proud and grateful to all of my colleagues for adapting so well and for maintaining our customer service levels, despite the significant changes in the marketplace. “The Digital division transitioned to two new operating platforms during the year and, despite tightening our lending criteria, the division issued more loans and introduced longer-term lending during the period, which is an encouraging indicator for the future growth of the Digital business and for the achievement of break-even on a run rate basis by the end of FY22.”
“We are experiencing a growing demand from customers for a wider range of digital products and services and we have created a robust digital current account proposition and loans management platform positioned to capture this growth. “We are seeing robust demand for non-standard finance products as the market reopens, with positive sales trends since the year-end in both divisions and further uptake expected as Government restrictions relax further. A number of our competitors have stepped back from the HCC and digital sectors and, as a result, we expect to benefit from reduced competition within the market. The accelerated shift to digital is permanent and the investment the Group has made in technological infrastructure over a number of years stands us in good stead to continue supporting our customers and meeting their ever-changing financial needs with our broadening suite of financial products.”