MCL.L Regulatory News (MCL)

 3 November 2022

Morses Club PLC

Board Appointments

Morses Club PLC ("Morses Club", the "Company" or, together with its subsidiary undertakings, the "Group"), an established provider of non-standard credit services, provides the following update on changes to the Board.

Steve Curtis will join the Board with effect from 5 November in the role of Interim Chair (non-independent), subject to FCA approval. Steve has extensive experience as a Chair and CEO across a broad range of sectors, including financial, and has direct knowledge of the credit sector. He has a proven track record and particular expertise in working with financial institutions and executive teams to effect business restructuring to drive growth.

Following an early career at a number of large UK businesses, which led to several Board appointments, Steve set up his own practice in 2012 and has since focused on the successful turnaround and growth of companies in the private equity space. Steve played a key role in the flotation of Morses Club on the AIM market in 2016 and since April 2022 has been helping the Company in a strategic advisory position.

Sheryl Lawrence will also take on the role of Deputy Chair with effect from 5 November, in addition to her roles as Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Audit Committee.

Additionally, Terry Baxter will join the Board with effect from 5 November as an independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Risk Committee, subject to FCA approval. Terry has extensive experience at Board level, having worked in a variety of roles for Target Group Limited, ultimately as the Group Risk and Compliance Director, and as part of the leadership team of Grant Thornton's Financial Services Group. Terry has conducted a number of skilled person reviews during his career covering a wide variety of topics such as compliance, risk management, responsible lending and financial crime.

Gary Marshall, Chief Executive Officer of Morses Club, commented:

"We are delighted that both Steve and Terry have joined the Board during this period of significant change. Steve's wealth of commercial experience, both directly in the credit sector and in wider consumer sectors, is directly relevant to Morses Club's future business and funding strategy as we continue to work up the detail of a potential Scheme of Arrangement. Sheryl's appointment as Deputy Chair, in addition to her other roles, adds further independence to the Board and Terry's appointment brings particularly relevant experience during a period of transformation for the business."

AIM Disclosures

Stephen Curtis is 57 years old and during the last five years immediately preceding the date of this announcement held the following directorships:

The following disclosures are made as required under sections (v) to (vii) paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules for Companies in relation to companies that were placed into liquidation or receivership/administration where Stephen Curtis was a director at the time or a director 12 months preceding the event:

Beheren Limited: administrators were appointed in February 2022 and the process remains ongoing.

Terence Alexander Baxter is 60 years old and during the last five years immediately preceding the date of this announcement held the following directorships:

There is no further information to be disclosed pursuant to Schedule Two Part (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies.

For further information please contact:

Notes to Editors

About Morses Club

Morses Club is an established provider of non-standard credit services in the UK. The Group consists of Morses Club, the UK's largest home collected credit ("HCC") provider1, and Shelby Finance Limited, Morses Club's Digital division, which operates under the online brand of Dot Dot Loans, an online lending provider. The Group's growing Digital capabilities and scalable, highly invested IT platform has enabled Morses Club to deliver a range of lending products to the non-standard credit market.

UK HCC is considered to be a specialised segment of the broader UK non-standard credit market. UK HCC loans are typically small, unsecured loans delivered directly to customers either remotely or in their homes.

Morses Club's HCC division is the largest UK Home Collected Credit (HCC) lender1 with 143,000 customers throughout the UK. The HCC division enjoys consistently high customer satisfaction scores of 97%2. In 2019 the Company introduced an online customer portal for its HCC customers, used by 81% of customers.

The Group's growing Digital division, Shelby Finance, operates under the online brand Dot Dot Loans which provides online instalment loans of up to 48 months to c. 39,000 active customers.

Morses Club listed on AIM in May 2016.

About the UK non-standard credit market

The UK non-standard credit market, of which UK HCC is a subset, consists of both secured and unsecured lending and is estimated to comprise around 10 million consumers3 and total loan receivables of £9.6bn4.

Non-standard credit is the provision of secured and unsecured credit to consumers other than through mainstream lenders. Lenders providing non-standard credit principally lend on an unsecured basis and the market is characterised by high frequency borrowing. Approximately 2 million people move annually between standard and non-standard markets 4.

Since February 2014, unsecured personal lending has grown from £161 billion to £225 billion in February 2020. It has since contracted to £197 billion in August 20215.

1 Based on Net Loan Book of £45.3m as at 28 August 20212 Independent Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by Mustard3 FCA High Cost Credit Review Technical Annex 1: CRA data analysis of UK personal debt - July 20174 Apex Insight - Non-Prime Consumer Credit: UK Market Insight Report - December 20205 Table A5.2, Bank of England Money and Credit Bank stats August 2021