Harmoney announces change to platform; focuses on innovation in services to borrowers

13 February 2020

In the wake of steady, sustained growth, heavy investment in services and technology, and a market-changing influence on the costs and opportunities for borrowers since the company’s founding in 2014, fintech pioneer and leading digital lending platform provider Harmoney will fund all loans directly and as a result will no longer accept retail investments from 1 April 2020.

The move means no new retail investor applications will be accepted from 13 February 2020, and while current retail lenders will continue to receive interest and capital repayments on the loans they hold, no new investment will be facilitated from 1 April 2020.

There is no change to the experience, service or offering for borrowers in New Zealand and Australia, who can continue to use the platform as usual.

Harmoney CEO David Stevens says, “Harmoney was established to create better opportunities for Kiwis – and then Australians. Our aim was always to bring much better choice for consumers, along with unprecedented transparency to the financial services industry. With our original peer-to-peer model in New Zealand, we disrupted the personal finance market and created better outcomes for borrowers and lenders. We believe we have even played a part in lowering the cost of borrowing.

“Closing the retail lending part of the platform is a decision we have come to over time. While a move we make reluctantly, it is necessary to free up resources so that Harmoney can continue to innovate, enhance value and create a better user experience for borrowers.”

For existing retail lenders, loans will simply run down as payments are collected and lenders’ accounts will be credited in the same process as exists today.

Mr Stevens says, “Harmoney will manage the scaling down of the retail book so that there is minimum impact on lenders who will continue to enjoy the collection service they are accustomed to.”

“Our purpose is to help and inspire people to achieve their goals through financial products that are friendly, fair and simple to use, and we are proud that Harmoney created a new class of retail investment and has become a Kiwi-made Australasian success story in what is still a young sector. We recently completed a successful Series C capital raise, and have surpassed $1.5 billion in lending, and we look forward to continuing to innovate for the improvement of the whole industry and to support borrowers and investors.”

Harmoney is communicating the change directly with retail lenders. The terms of existing loans, and borrower obligations, are unchanged; tax certification and regular reporting will continue to be issued; and Harmoney will retain its P2P licences (issued by the FMA in 2014).

David Stevens

Harmoney CEO

For queries please contact:

Investors

David Stevens
CEO & Managing Director
investors@harmoney.co.nz

Media

Stephanie Ottens
Investor Relations
stephanie.ottens@marketeye.com.au
+61 434 405 400

About Harmoney

Harmoney is an online direct personal lender that operates across Australia and New Zealand providing customers with unsecured personal loans that are easy to access, competitively priced (using risk-adjusted interest rates) and accessed 100% online.

Harmoney’s purpose is to help people achieve their goals through financial products that are fair, friendly, and simple to use.

Harmoney’s proprietary digital lending platform, Stellare™, facilitates its personalised loan product with applications processed and loans typically funded within 24 hours of acceptance by the customer. Stellare™ applies a customer’s individual circumstance to its data-driven, machine learning credit scorecard to deliver automated credit decisioning and accurate risk-based pricing.

Business fundamentals

• Harmoney provides risk based priced unsecured personal loans of up to $70,000 for three or five year periods to customers across Australia and NZ
• Its direct-to-consumer and automated loan approval system is underpinned by Harmoney’s scalable Stellare™ proprietary technology platform
• A large percentage of Harmoney’s originations come from 3R™ (repeat) customers
• Harmoney is comprised of a team of ~80 full-time employees across Australia and New Zealand, over half of whom comprise engineering, data science and product professionals
• Harmoney is funded by a number of sources including two “Big-4” bank warehouse programs across Australia and New Zealand and a facility from M&G Investments