FlexiGroup's green shoots of growth
FlexiGroup offers a broad range of options to securitisation investors, including assets in Australia and New Zealand and a pioneering green issuance programme. Paul Jamieson, the firm’s Auckland-based group treasurer, and Bianca Spata, head of group funding in Sydney, update on developments.
FlexiGroup has been issuing asset-backed securities (ABS) transactions in Australia and New Zealand for a number of years. How has the business’s presence in these markets developed?
The growth in our credit-card businesses has been above system growth in Australia and New Zealand, which we are certainly pleased to see. We have also shown strong growth and significant improvement over the last year in consumer and commercial leasing.
What is FlexiGroup’s opportunity set in consumer finance?
Our fixed-instalment Certegy Ezi-Pay (Certegy) product offers no interest to the customer. They can have solar panels installed and pay back the loan over 60 months with no interest. It is very hard for banks to match this with personal loans, for example.
All this sector’s issuers need to be innovative and improve their digital offerings. The customer experience has to be as frictionless as possible.
We are also focused on delivering new products with strong value propositions. We have recently released a new consumer-lease product called Lisa and we have also released a new SKYE mastercard. These offer strong customer value propositions which help us compete with banks and startups alike.
FlexiGroup has pioneered green securitisation backed by solar receivables. How much of a focus is this for the business?
We are focused on growing our presence in green-energy finance not just through our Certegy product but also in other parts of the business. The ability to offer green ABS is a key differentiator for FlexiGroup and we expect it will continue to grow.
There is a lot of talk about batteries and other assets outside the solar photovoltaic space where we have historically been focused. Expanding our green asset base is certainly something we are looking at and, to the extent we can, we will look to include these assets in our capital-markets transactions.
The South Australian government, together with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, recently announced subsidies for solar panels and batteries. There is a lot of interest in the area and it is something we see continuing to grow. We are well positioned to capitalise on this growth given our history and foothold in the space.
FlexiGroup has been issuing annually in Australia and New Zealand. What is your issuance strategy for the two markets?
nonbank Yearbook 2023
KangaNews's eighth annual guide to the business and funding trends in Australia's nonbank financial-institution sector.