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Moneyline voted ‘Responsible Lender of the Year 2012′

Moneyline voted Responsible Lender of the Year 2012

A Blackburn-based social business that lends money to customers largely ignored and unwanted by banks has scooped the prestigious “Credit Today: Responsible Lender of the Year 2012” award at a glittering ceremony in London.

In front of 1,400 industry peers at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, on 10^th May 2012, Moneyline was recognised by the judges as the winner of the Arrow Global sponsored award for the second consecutive year.

From one shop in Blackburn in 2002, Moneyline has grown to an operation of ten branded Moneyline branches in England and further five (trading as Moneyline Cymru) in Wales employing 60 staff.

In 2011, more than £7.5million was lent in modest sums, typically less than £500, to more than 13,500 customers.

Most customers use Moneyline in preference to higher cost home-collected credit that charges around £82 on top of every £100 issued. For new customers Moneyline charges about half this rate, and for longer-term customers around a quarter.

In 2011 alone, new customers collectively saved more than £680,000 against what they would have paid had Moneyline not been there.

 Moneyline’s typical customer is a young woman, with children, living on a low or benefit dependent income and renting her home from a social landlord.

 Moneyline CEO, Ian Clough, said “Two out of every three customers are unemployed, almost half are lone parents and nine in ten rent – we typically lend for Christmas, school clothes or trips, a replacement cooker or washing machine, sometimes a holiday. These are not big sums but they make an enormous impact on the quality of life and standard of living of our customer. We recognise the need for flexibility and building a relationship with customers, that means higher transactional costs to cover the cost of lending but as a social business we have no private shareholders to satisfy, no bonus culture, nor do we employ a target-driven approach to lending”.

Moneyline believes that its way of doing business matters. There is no minimum borrowing requirement, and only a handful borrow more than £1,000. The salary ratio from top earner to bottom is just 3:1; the office locations on secondary high streets are humble, and the dedicated staff team recount conversations from satisfied customers on the difference the loan has made to them.

Moneyline was presented with a unique opportunity in 2011 to work with Social Business Trust - a partnership of Bain & Company, Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, Permira and Thomson Reuters.

Social Business Trust provided a package of cash and professional support to improve efficiencies and enable Moneyline to offer services to more customers.

Moneyline is currently actively seeking loan capital from banks, trusts and social philanthropists to deliver more loans to people who cannot access realistically priced credit elsewhere. It is also in discussion to embed money advice in all branches and to provide low cost home contents insurance to those customers that need it.

“Our target is to have 100,000 customers by 2015.” said Ian.  “We’re looking to grow our number of branches in Northern England and Wales over the next 12 months. I believe what we do is responsible lending and I’m delighted for our staff that others recognise it as such”.