Morses Club’s collections at 98% of normal expectations

The alternative lending group’s latest trading update follows a statement issued on July 16 – which showed that lending had dropped significantly in April, but the rate of decline had improved in May and June. Full-year results are expected soon.

This latest update, published today (August 10), shows that cash collections in July improved slightly to 82.3% of the level achieved in 2019. Sales were 80.9% of the levels for the same period in 2019, whilst customer satisfaction has been maintained at 97% or above during the period.

Payment to terms for the initial cohort of new customers is 100%, while payment to terms for new lending to existing customers currently stands at 97%.

According to the trading update, Morses Club is encouraged by continued growth in customer interest in the online customer portal, which now has over 110,000 customers.

Morses Club explained that it has continued to implement structural changes to the business with employees and agents continuing to work from home and will be doing so until the end of the year. Further restructuring of the group’s property portfolio is progressing as a result and agent vacancy rates are now at the lowest level in the company’s history.

During July, progress in Shelby Finance, the group’s digital division, has continued with growing levels of lending and an increase in demand for longer-term lending products. Collections in this division have strengthened at above 80% to terms, which is an improvement on the level prior to Covid-19, with the level of demand for the e-banking current account product remaining stable.

Paul Smith, CEO of Morses Club, said: "We are encouraged by both the improvements in lending and the quality of the lending performance that we have delivered during July. We continue to make progress despite the impact of Covid-19, reflecting the success of our prudent approach to managing the business whilst strengthening and diversifying our product offering and putting our customers at the heart of the business."

In April, Morses Club launched a remote lending product while in July, Shelby Finance had to write off half a million in loans after failing to provide borrowing statements.