Wisr reports 95% spike in loan originations

According to personal loan provider Wisr’s preliminary full-year results for the 2020 financial year (FY20), operating revenue increased by 135 per cent, from $3 million in FY19 to $7.2 million in FY20.

The earnings boost as underpinned by a spike in new loan originations, up 96 per cent, from $69 million to $136 million.

As a result, Wisr’s loan book more than doubled, increasing 113 per cent, from $79.6 million to $169.4 million.

Reflecting on the result, Wisr CEO Anthony Nantes commented: “FY20 has been a year of unquestionable success for Wisr. We’ve delivered significant growth across all of our key metrics and achieved major milestones.

“Our purpose-led, fully digital and agile fintech business model ensured we could rapidly respond to COVID-19 conditions, instantly adjust our models and succeed through unprecedented macroeconomic changes.”

He continued: “We achieved strong loan origination growth and revenue uplift for the second half of FY20.

“Our loan origination run-rate is now 45 per cent above pre-COVID-19 levels and our exit velocity from June puts us in a strong position for FY21.”

Credit quality

Wisr has also reported that customer hardship requests “returned to pre-COVID-19 levels” in May 2020.

Approximately $10.3 million or 6.12 per cent of total portfolio loans were on COVID-19 specific payment assistance, which reportedly dropped to $5.6 million (3 per cent) by 31 July 2020.

According to Wisr, the recovery rate for COVID-19 hardship customers, which was 75 per cent as at 30 June 2020, increased to 81 per cent by the end of July.

Over 90-day arrears underlying its portfolio also decreased, down from 1.59 per cent as at 30 June 2019 to 1.44 per cent as at 30 June 2020.

“Across all areas of the business, our team has delivered incredible results against very challenging circumstances,” Mr Nantes added.

“We have focused heavily on our high-performance culture and delivered a record +94 for our employee net promoter score during COVID-19 in Q4FY20.”

He concluded: “Wisr has a significant opportunity to provide a new type of lending experience and grow market share in line with our risk appetite and deliver on the enormous potential available to us.”

[Related: Prospa loan originations thumped by COVID-19]