November 2020 Trading and Regulatory Update

RNS Number : 9234I

International Personal Finance Plc

17 December 2020

 

17 December 2020

International Personal Finance plc

November 2020 Trading and Regulatory Update

International Personal Finance plc (IPF) specialises in providing unsecured consumer credit to around 1.7 million customers across 10 markets.  We operate the world's largest home credit business and a leading fintech business, IPF Digital .

As part of our ongoing strategy to regularly inform and update investors on key operational performance metrics during the Covid-19 pandemic, IPF is publishing the following information for November 2020 together with an update on regulatory matters.

· Robust collections effectiveness

Collections effectiveness was robust in November and remains at 97% of pre-Covid expectations.  All of our businesses (excluding Hungary where an opt-out moratorium is in place) delivered a good performance.  T he modest reduction in collections effectiveness we expected during the winter has not materialised, but we continue to plan for a softening in performance in the coming months.

· Credit issued stable

Although most of our markets are currently implementing more restrictive measures on people movements to cope with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, credit issued increased by 1 ppt in the month to 61% of pre-Covid expectations.  We have progressively relaxed credit settings since the half year and our plan remains focused on rebuilding the receivables portfolio while maintaining a clear focus on portfolio quality and the macroeconomic effects of Covid.

· Regulatory update

Following its actions earlier in 2020 in response to the pandemic, the Polish government is proposing a bundle of further measures, including the extension from 8 March 2021 until the end of 2021 of the temporarily reduced cap on non-interest costs of consumer credit.  The proposals, which would only impact new lending, are expected to be debated in the Polish houses of parliament in the coming weeks and may also be referred to the EU for review and comment. We will update the market with our assessment of the potential financial impact on our Polish business, if and when the proposals are finalised and enacted.

Gerard Ryan, CEO at IPF, commented: "We continued to perform well in November. Collections remained robust and we increased credit issued in line with our strategy to progressively rebuild the receivables portfolio while maintaining credit quality.  We will continue to focus on protecting our colleagues so they can serve our customers safely during the peak month of December and beyond."

Investor relations and media contact:

International Personal Finance

Rachel Moran [phone] / [phone]

A copy of this statement can be found on our website - www.ipfin.co.uk

Legal Entity Identifier: 213800II1O44IRKUZB59

 

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