Digital finance platform, SocietyOne, has received a rating of “Very Strong” for its Personal Loans Trust from independent ASIC-licensed ratings agency, Australia Ratings Analytics.
A rating of Very Strong is the second highest rating on the investment rating scale used by Australia Ratings, and indicates a very strong conviction that a fund can deliver a risk-adjusted return in line with its investment objective.
How has Societyone managed to earn this rating?
“Since launching in April 2019, the Personal Loans Trust has achieved its target annual return of 5-6 per cent for its investors despite significant recent macroeconomic challenges, establishing that fintechs can compete through the economic cycle.”
“The consistently strong risk-adjusted returns SocietyOne has achieved for its investors, even throughout unprecedented times, is a testament to our business, staff, and policies. It is one of the many reasons our investors continue to invest in our personal loans unit trust,” says SocietyOne CEO Mark Jones.
“We are very proud of the credit quality we have been able to maintain, evidencing the quality of our credit procedures. The Personal Loans Trust also offers investors the ability to achieve a high cash yield in the current market, even though most of our investors are choosing to reinvest that yield.”
“Now that loan origination levels are back to pre-COVID levels, and our default rates are lower than ever, we expect growth to continue momentum. This will be assisted by our approvals process, which takes 1 to 2 days, compared to banks and our competitors that can take 6 to 8 days, combined with some of the best interest rates in the market.”
The Personal Loans Trust managed by SocietyOne Australia Pty Ltd provides wholesale investors access to a diversified portfolio of cash and personal loans specifically structured to provide consistent income distributions with a stable unit price, which is a notable achievement given the need to manage risk in the underlying assets.
What is the regulator’s impression of Societyone?
The Personal Loans Trust also received a ‘Yellow’ Product Complexity Indicator from Australia Ratings, meaning it is a complex financial product with underlying assets that require specialist investment skills to acquire and monitor.
Australia Ratings analyst, Maggie Callinan, says: “The rating of Very Strong reflects the experience of SocietyOne’s investment team, and their ability to effectively manage the portfolio of underlying loans.”
“It also indicates the high level of confidence Australia Ratings has that the structure of the Personal Loans Trust will deliver the objective of stable returns with very low capital volatility.”
SocietyOne is Australia’s pioneer and leader in marketplace lending finding investors looking for great returns and pride, that their investments support real people. Through the lending platform it matches the investors’ funds with creditworthy borrowers looking for better and fairer deals on personal loans, compared to the big banks.
Since inception in August 2012, SocietyOne has provided more than $1 billion in total lending and has helped more than 35,000 borrowers. The broker distribution channel has also driven more than $70m in loan origination since its launch.
The platform offers fixed rate secured and unsecured personal loans between $5,000 and $70,000, over terms of two, three, five, or seven years. SocietyOne has also more recently launched a free credit score product, helping customers find out more about their score, how it works and how to improve through easy to understand insights.
SocietyOne is backed by a diverse group of shareholders like News Corp Australia, Seven West Media, Consolidated Press Holdings, Reinventure Fund (Westpac Group’s venture capital arm), EISS Super, several credit unions and mutual banks.
SocietyOne has received numerous industry awards:
- #2 in The Australian Financial Review Top 100 Most Innovative Companies 2020
- Product Review 2020 Awards – Personal loans
- Fintech Business – Lending Innovator of the Year, Fintech Excellence Award 2019
- Deloitte Fast 500, APAC winner 2019
- Canstar 5 stars 2019 and Product Review Personal Loans Award
- #9 in The Australian Financial Review Top 100 Most Innovative Companies 2019
- Lending Innovator of the Year in the Fintech Business Awards 2018
- Best Marketing/Branding Initiative of the Year in the Fintech Australia Awards 2018
- Listed in The Australian Financial Review Top 100 Most Innovative Companies List 2018
- Excellence in P2P Lending in the FinTech Australia Awards 2017
- Innovative Retail Product of the Year in the RFi Group Australian Retail Banking Awards 2017
- Best FinTech Bank Collaboration Award in the Annual Australian FinTech Awards 2017
- Listed in the 2016 Global Top 100 FinTechs by KPMG and H2 Ventures
