SocietyOne hits new lending records

SocietyOne sets new lending record as growth continues to accelerate in 2017

• $250 million in total lending originations since inception
• March 2017 sets new monthly record for new lending of $20 million
• Second best quarter on record for personal loans and agri-lending
• Loan book goes through $150 million – 165% increase year-on-year
• Significant increase in investor funding following appointment of CIO John Cummins

SocietyOne, Australia’s leading and fastest-growing marketplace lender, has set a further new record for marketplace lending after passing through the $250 million lending mark following another strong quarter of growth.
Strong demand from borrowers for personal loans in the post-Christmas and New Year period, and growing interest in SocietyOne’s secured agri-lending product, saw an additional $45 million provided to customers in the March quarter of this year.

That took the total amount of lending made by SocietyOne to $250 million since inception, of which $178 million – 72 per cent of the total – has been advanced to personal loan borrowers and agri-lending customers since January 2016.

March also saw a new monthly record for lending in SocietyOne’s history with $20 million advanced to borrowers. That beat the previous high set in November 2016 and the prior second best-ever month in February 2017. The number of customers helped also continues to grow strongly and now stand at just over 11,000, a rise of more than 7,200 in the last 12 months.

At the same, SocietyOne has had significant inflow of investor funds with new mandates from life companies, mutual banks and credit unions, SMSFs and high net worth individuals.

Current committed funding as at 31 March stands at $74.6 million. The number of investor funders has grown to 309, an increase of 90 over the past 12 months.

“Having set new records in 2016 for helping customers by providing new lending and funding of $136 million, almost double the amount we had achieved in the previous three years, we have seen that strong momentum continue into the first part of 2017,” said Jason Yetton, CEO and Managing Director of SocietyOne.

“The first quarter was also our second best on record, coming within $1.5 million of lending in the previous record set in the fourth quarter of 2016. That’s particularly impressive given that, historically, the peak lending quarter for the personal loans market occurs between October and December.

“What we are now seeing is thousands of Australians coming to us every month with the aim of getting a better deal than what is on offer from traditional lenders, which is, in turn, helping them to realise their potential and financial dreams.

“Just as importantly, our customers are telling us that we are providing real competition to the major banks which gives us confidence that we can achieve our goal of taking a 2-3 per cent share of the $100 billion consumer finance market by 2021 and help over 100,000 Australians in doing so.

“From an investor funder perspective, the arrival of our new Chief Investment Officer John Cummins in January has coincided with increasing interest from institutions and individuals wanting to invest in our portfolio of loans which is swiftly translating into new mandates and a significant in-flow of funds.”

Other highlights for the first quarter include:

• More than 1 million Australians have now obtained their credit score for free, empowering them with the information to get a better financial deal thanks to the campaign by getcreditscore.com.au, the business venture partnership between SocietyOne and Equifax (formerly Veda). The 1 million mark was passed in early March, an increase of 163,000 individual scores since the end of December 2016;
• The effective annualised rate of return across the company’s portfolio of two year, three year and five year personal loans sits in the company’s expected range of 8% to 10%, having averaged 9.3% p.a. between January 2014 and the end of March 2017 (a);
• The percentage of borrower accounts which are 90 days or more in arrears currently sits at 1.6% of the personal loan book, which is comparable with the major banks. There have been no defaults on the agri-lending portfolio since the product was launched in 2014.

Mr Yetton added: “The current year is shaping up to be another record one for SocietyOne and we are looking forward to helping even more customers to tackle the financial issues that matter to them, whether it’s consolidating credit card debt, renovating their home, buying a car, taking that well-deserved holiday or helping Australian farmers to grow their businesses.”

(a) The effective annualised rate of return as shown on the SocietyOne website as at 31 March 2017.