TIDMMCL
RNS Number : 3789W
Morses Club PLC
18 August 2020
18 August 2020
Morses Club
New Strategic Contract for U Account
Morses Club PLC ("the Company" or "the Group"), an established
provider of non-standard financial services , is pleased to
announce that Shelby Finance Limited ("Shelby Finance"), the
Group's Digital Division, has entered into a new supplier
relationship with Modulr Finance Limited ("Modulr"), a digital
payments provider. The relationship relates to the Digital
Division's U Account business, which provides e-money accounts, and
replaces the Company's existing relationship with Wirecard Card
Solutions Ltd ("Wirecard UK").
Modulr's platform will provide the Group's U Account customers
with an enhanced payments service, along with a superior customer
service experience for their e-money and payment needs. Modulr's
direct participation to the payment schemes Bacs and Faster
Payments will provide U Account customers with a reliable card
processing solution and allow them to make near instant Faster
Payments. This wide-ranging digital payments solution is not
typically available outside of mainstream banking providers.
The new strategic contract with Modulr will also provide the
opportunity for further development of mobile payment and
international payment capabilities. Moreover, the Group's
development of a new biometric onboarding and servicing capability
will mean U Account customers will be able to access and operate
their accounts more easily and securely than before.
The new service, powered by Modulr, is expected to be available
to U Account customers from Autumn 2020. The Group also plans to
unveil new branding for U Account along with the launch of an
improved mobile application before the end of the year, which will
enable customers to take advantage of these new features.
The superior performance of Modulr's platform, along with the
ability to process a larger number of new customers, should allow
Morses Club to increase its scale in e-money accounts, and leverage
the wider suite of Modulr products including payment initiation,
Visa cards, Direct Debits and direct access to Faster Payments and
Bacs schemes . The Group aims to offer complementary services to
these customers, including revolving and fixed-lending products, as
part of the Group's wider strategy to offer an enhanced and
integrated digital offering to all its customers.
Paul Smith, CEO of Morses Club commented
"This is another step forward in our strategy to invest in the
Group's digital infrastructure, allowing us to cater for our
customers' ever-changing needs and provide a high-quality product
offering.
"Not only will Modulr be a more reliable provider for our U
Account customers, but the superior technological capabilities of
the platform will allow them to access a service offering not
typically available outside of mainstream banking providers. On top
of this, the launch of our improved mobile application before the
end of the year will enable our customers to increasingly use our
services in their everyday lives, deepening our relationship with
and understanding of each customer.
"This relationship marks a significant progression towards
achieving scale within the e-money accounts market, providing a
bigger pool of customers who can take advantage of Morses Club's
other digital products. The launch of revolving and fixed-lending
products to our account holders will also be a major step forwards
in achieving profitability in the Group's digital division."
For further information please contact:
Morses Club PLC Tel: +44 (0) 330
Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer 045 0719
Andy Thomson, Interim Chief Financial
Officer
Peel Hunt (NOMAD) Tel: +44 (0) 20
Andrew Buchanan / James Britton / Rishi 7418 8900
Shah / Duncan Littlejohns (Corporate)
Jock Maxwell Macdonald (ECM)
Camarco Tel: +44 (0) 20
Jennifer Renwick / Oliver Head / Jake 3781 8332
Thomas
Notes to Editors
About Morses Club
Morses Club is an established provider of non-standard financial
services in the UK. The Group consists of Morses Club, the UK's
second largest home collected credit ("HCC") provider, and Shelby
Finance Limited, Morses Club's digital division, which operates
under two online brands, Dot Dot Loans, an online lending provider,
and U Account, which offers online e-money current accounts. The
Group's growing digital capabilities and scalable, highly invested
IT platform has enabled Morses Club to deliver an increasingly
broad range of financial products and services to the non-standard
credit market.
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 million(1) people using
the services of UK HCC lenders.
Morses Club's HCC division is the second largest UK Home
Collected Credit (HCC) lender with 224,000 customers throughout the
UK. The majority of the Company's customers are repeat borrowers
and the HCC division enjoys consistently high customer satisfaction
scores of 97%(2) . In 2016, the Morses Club Card, a cashless
lending product, was introduced and in 2019 the Company introduced
an online customer portal for its HCC customers, which now has over
109,000 registered customers.
The Group's growing digital division, Shelby Finance, operates
under two online brands. Dot Dot Loans provides online instalment
loans of up to 48 months to 37,000 active customers. U Account is a
leading digital current account provider offering an alternative to
traditional banking by providing a fully functional agency banking
service. U Account currently has c. 18,000 customers.
Morses Club listed on AIM in May 2016.
About Modulr
Modulr is the Payments as a Service API platform for digital
businesses. It integrates into any product or system. Modulr's new
type of payment accounts are built for businesses that need a
faster, easier and more reliable way to move money. Businesses can
automate payment flows, embed payments into their platforms and
build entirely new payment products and services themselves. All
managed in real-time, 24/7 from one API.
Modulr's API makes it easy for businesses to streamline existing
services, launch new products and scale more efficiently. Modulr
Finance Limited (FRN: 900699) is registered with the Financial
Conduct Authority as an EMD Agent of Modulr FS Limited (FRN
900573). Modulr FS Limited is an Authorised Electronic Money
Institution,
regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. www.modulrfinance.com
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(3) and total loan receivables
of GBP10.7bn(4) .
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.
Approximately 2 million people move annually between standard and
non-standard markets(4) .
Since February 2014, unsecured personal lending has grown from
GBP161 billion to GBP216 billion in February 2019(5) .
(1 High Cost Credit Review ANNEX 1 - July 2017 2 Independent
Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by Mustard 3 FCA High Cost
Credit Review Technical Annex 1: CRA data analysis of UK personal
debt - July 2017 4 Apex Insight - Non-Prime Consumer Credit: UK
Market Insight Report - September 2019 5 Table A5.2, Bank of
England Money and Credit Bank stats February 2019)
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
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contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
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