Agri-lending helped drive SocietyOne to a new loan record
The peer-to-peer lender's foray into livestock loans has proved to be profitable.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) lender SocietyOne has announced a new lending record, passing the $250 million lending mark in March of this year. Part of the lender's success is due to increased demand for its two agri-lending products, which, combined with a surge in personal loans over the post-Christmas and New Year period, saw an additional $45 million lent to customers.
CEO and managing director Jason Yetton said the numbers demonstrate SocietyOne's strong momentum in 2016 has continued into the beginning of this year.
“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," he said.
"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% share of the $100 billion consumer finance market by 2021 and help over 100,000 Australians in doing so."
The livestock lending program was rolled out in October 2013, just over a year after the lender itself launched. It was the first P2P rural lending pilot program and was run in a partnership with Ray White Rural. One clear success metric of the program is that there have been no defaults on the agri-lending portfolio since the product was launched, compared to the 1.6% of SocietyOne personal loan borrowers that are currently 90 days or more in arrears.
Yetton is confident about the year ahead.
“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,” he said.
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