Doorstep lender issues £82m of credit in 2017

Morses Club recently announced a preview of its interim results for the six months ending August 26 2017.

It said its trading performance has been strong with £82.2m of credit issued in this six-month period, compared to £66m for the same period last year. Customer numbers also increased by 12 percent to around 233,000 - said to be primarily driven by territory builds.

It’s understood Morses Club took on new self-employed agents who previously worked for Provident Financial. Morses Club’s chief executive said the business had capitalised on from “market conditions”.

The gross loan book increased by 12 percent with the average customer balance unchanged. Morses Club said it has continued to improve the quality of its customer base with the proportion of loans attributable to the company’s highest tier customers increasing by seven percent compared to the same period in 2016. It said this reflects the company’s credit policy which focuses on higher quality lending.

Morses Club will continue to focus on a technology platform to underpin the core business and aims to build new product streams.

Morses Club Card, the company’s cashless lending product continues its organic growth with Dot Dot Loans, its first online instalment product launched in March 2017, continuing in its market test phase.

Paul Smith, chief executive of Morses Club, said: "We are delighted with all aspects of the progress of the business, reflecting the fact that we have capitalised on market conditions, whilst developing our strategy of product diversification.”

Morses Club will announce its full interim results for this period and declare its dividend to be paid during the first quarter of 2018 on October 5.