Paul Smith appointment to FCA SBPP

29 May 2018

Morses Club PLC

Paul Smith appointment to FCA Smaller Business Practitioner Panel

Morses Club PLC ("the Company", "Morses Club" or "the Group"), the UK's second largest home collected credit ("HCC") lender, welcomes the FCA Board's appointment of Paul Smith, Morses Club's CEO, to the Smaller Business Practitioner Panel to represent the consumer credit sector, with effect from 1 May 2018.

Paul joins a panel of 15 senior practitioners to represent the interests of small and medium size firms across the range of FCA-regulated activities, with panel members recruited to represent both their own sector and the industry as a whole. Its key remit is to provide input to the FCA from the industry in order to help it in meeting its statutory and operational objectives from a smaller business standpoint.

Commenting on his appointment, Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Morses Club, said:

"I am delighted and honoured to have been appointed to the Smaller Business Practitioner Panel to represent the consumer credit industry. The Panel plays a vital role in representing the interests of smaller firms in the industry with the FCA and I look forward representing the interests of the Home Collect Credit sector, the needs of their customers and the wider non-standard finance sector".

More information on the role of the FCA Smaller Business Practitioner Panel can be found at www.fca-sbpp.org.uk 

For further information please contact:

Notes to Editors

About Morses Club

Morses Club is the second largest UK Home Collected Credit (HCC) lender with 229,000 customers and 2,030 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.

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.

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 £161 billion to £209 billion in February 20181.

1 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 million2 people using the services of UK HCC lenders.

2 High Cost Credit Review ANNEX 1 - July 2017