Equals Gp Share News (EQLS)

(Sharecast News) - Electronic banking and international payments provider Equals Group announced on Wednesday that its first loan product for small to medium enterprises, in partnership with Iwoca, was now live.
The AIM-traded firm said it was granted permission by the Financial Conduct Authority to offer credit products to its customers via a broker relationship.

Under this permission, the group could now offer a "wide range" of credit and loan products to its business and retail customers, while not taking credit risk or utilising its balance sheet.

That product offering was expected to be a material new revenue stream for the business going forward, the board said.

It added that it had partnered with small business lender Iwoca to create an "innovative" app-based flexible loan product, which was being initially launched as the CardOneMoney Platinum Business Loan, and was now live.

Utilising the product, the group's customers could now apply for a loan via an app and receive a decision, together with the available funds, within "minutes".

Funds were available immediately on a virtual Mastercard and usable online, could be transferred to the customer's business account, or used directly via Equals direct connectivity to Faster Payments and other payment methods.

"Having our first credit-based product live is a key step in the Equals journey," said Equals Group chief executive officer Ian Strafford-Taylor.

"With all the various products and services we can offer to businesses, the ability to offer credit was the missing piece of the jigsaw.

"With this rapid and easy-to-use product our business customers literally have funds available at their fingertips."

Strafford-Taylor said the speed at which the company had rolled out the product was testament to both the quality of its internal engineering teams, as well as the quality of its partner Iwoca.

"This represents a new and significant revenue opportunity for the group and will be the first of many credit-related products we will launch and enables us to drive forwards in offering a full-service platform for our business customers."