Amigo releases first full-year results as listed company

Alongside the figures, the group’s chairman, Stephan Wilcke, also vowed to fight against “urban myths” around the lender’s guarantor model.

Amigo lends to customers with poor credit scores or thin credit files, and allow their friends or family to act as guarantors for their loans. Its results show it has 224,000 customers, up from 182,000 a year ago.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been scrutinising the guarantor loans market ahead of a potential crackdown on the sector.

Amigo’s results for the year to March 31, 2019, show that it has a loan book of £707.6m, a 17.4 percent increase year on year, although it has restated its opening loan book value in accordance with the IFRS 9 accounting standard.

It saw its revenue rise 28.4 percent to £270.7m, from £210.8m.

Its impairment charge, however, was 23.7 percent of revenue at March 31, 2019.

Chairman Wilcke said: “Arguably, Amigo being a publicly listed company has raised the profile of the guarantor loan product and fuelled some urban myths about us and our customers. In future we will work harder to dispel those myths and take the time to ensure our evolving stakeholder universe fully understands the service we offer.”

Chief executive Glen Crawford, who will step down in the summer, added: “We pride ourselves on doing the right thing by our customers (as for every borrower, there will also be a guarantor) in a compliant manner and ensuring that the right customer outcomes are achieved based on a rigorous affordability and underwriting process, which is then combined with an ethical collections methodology that includes a detailed understanding of individual customer circumstances.”