Anyone else going to put some effort in?22 Jun 2020 15:55
Sent today...
Dear Kate,
Following the RNS released today I really have cause for further concern that the board of Amigo has released misleading statements and creation of false or misleading impressions. Per my earlier emails the company indicated that new lending would be lower but more responsible. In addition Amigo has confirmed that it does not have a systematic problem with its loan book per the RNS of 5th March 2020, but it continues to pay out on claims for loans issued both historically and in the most recent trading period, including those since the RNS of 5th March.
Can you please confirm why the company has not addressed its irresponsible lending, or even acknowledged this in any of its updates? The updates only serve to warm the market of the problem, without acknowledging the issue lies with Amigo or any plan to get it sorted.
See this excerpt from Debt Camel:
ORIGINAL ARTICLE – 4 March
On 4 March 2020 the founder and majority shareholder of Amigo, James Benamor, resigned from the board which he had only rejoined in December.
In the evening he published a blog saying that the company was “committing slow motion suicide”.
Benamor said the board needed to choose between challenging recent FOS decisions on affordability complaints in court by Judicial Review or accept that “almost all their loans had been made irresponsibly”, stop lending and go into administration.
When he came back onto the board, he says he personally audited the most recently lent and refunded loans. And he found that:
Amigo had, for six months, been lending almost entirely in a way that matched their own complaints team’s definition of ‘irresponsible’.
He described the company as being a:
cash cow for consultants, lawyers and suits, all of whom had an interest in keeping the gravy train running for as long as possible, but no interest in the company being honest with shareholders or customers about the situation it was in.
and said he could no longer remain on the board.
Amigo has today issued a Response to statement by James Benamor disagreeing with much of what Benamor said:
Mr Benamor’s statement contains several material inaccuracies and is fundamentally incorrect in a number of respects. Amigo does not accept Mr Benamor’s account of events…
The Company monitors its loan book regularly and has concluded, as part of its Q3 review process, that it does not have a systemic problem.
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