Business Model

Our 1.7 million customers are at the heart of what we do; they are the 20% of UK adults who at any one time are looking for something that mainstream lenders do not offer.

• We have developed tailored products to meet their needs through a detailed understanding of their needs and challenges.
• We carefully assess affordability and creditworthiness and are specialists in managing arrears and supporting customers in financial difficulty.
• Our Customer, Culture and Ethics Committee is focused on ensuring the best outcomes for customers across all our customer interactions.

Our 2,500 colleagues are critical to delivering our business model. The success of the Group is dependent upon having motivated colleagues with the right expertise and skills to help deliver our strategy.

• We conduct an annual colleague survey to register sentiment and continually focus on making improvements for the betterment of our colleagues.
• We have diversity and inclusion working groups (focusing on gender, race, disability and LGBTQ+) that meet regularly and focus on ensuring the work environment is inclusive.
• We offer support to colleagues through our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and through the provision of the Thrive app to all colleagues.

We believe maintaining an open, constructive and trusting dialogue with policymakers and regulators (the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)) is critical. We work closely with our regulators to ensure we meet all regulatory standards and contribute to a safe and robust banking system.

• Our groups application to the PRA for a large exposure waiver has been recently approved.
• Our CEO was a member of the Woolard Review advisory panel.
• During the Scheme of Arrangement, we worked collaboratively and openly with the FCA to deliver the best outcome for customers.

We secure long-term, lower-rate funding through strong relationships with our lending banks, depositors and investors. We engage in discussions with our equity and debt investors to understand their needs and expectations leading to better outcomes over the long term and improving our sustainability.

• We interact with debt investors and shareholders through half-yearly results presentations, regular trading updates and management meetings.
• Our Board and ExCo receive periodic updates from Investor Relations on market activity and investor sentiment.
• Our Tier 2 debt issuance in October 2021 was oversubscribed.

Our suppliers are essential to provide our divisions with the goods and services required to enable us to continue to meet our customers’ needs. They play a vital role in our operations so it is important that we develop strong relationships with them.

• We have launched a new Supplier Management Framework to engage with suppliers effectively including having executive sponsorship for our key relationships.
• We have signed up to the Prompt Payment Code and are committed to paying the majority of our suppliers within 30 days.

Our community investment strategy is aligned to our social purpose and seeks to invest in activities and initiatives that support financial inclusion and social mobility. 

• In 2021, we invested £1.4m into the group's Social Impact Programme, which supports our partners in addressing issues such as customer vulnerability and financial difficulties, helping children, young people and adults to boost their education and enabling community foundations and other partners to address a wide range of social inclusion and social mobility issues.
• Our CEO became a member of the National Numeracy Leadership Council in September 2021, which aims to grow the network of organisations and individuals actively addressing the issue of poor numeracy and elevate the understanding and importance of the issue at a national level.