Wisr

About Wisr

Wisr is an Australian fintech consumer lender with a commitment to the financial wellness of all Australians through providing a smarter, fairer and wiser collection of financial products and services. Wisr provides a unique financial-wellness platform, underpinned by consumer finance products. These include personal loans and secured vehicle loans with no monthly or ongoing fees, the Wisr App – which helps Australians pay down debt – multiple credit score comparison services and other products that use technology to provide better outcomes for borrowers and investors.

As at 30 June 2022, Wisr has delivered an unbroken track record of 24 quarters of prime credit loan origination growth and passed a milestone of A$1.2 billion in loan originations.

Ownership

Wisr was founded in 2018 when chief executive Anthony Nantes rebranded DirectMoney Finance to Wisr Finance and began an entirely new business model driven by the purpose of improving the financial wellness of all Australians.

A senior executive team and board with deep experience in financial services, technology and delivering innovative products and customer experiences lead Wisr. There is no gender pay gap and women make up 40% of the board.

Capital and funding strategy

Wisr has evolved funding structures to facilitate scaling the business safely while driving revenue growth and increased margin. In November 2019, a pivotal stage was reached with a National Australia Bank (NAB)-sponsored warehouse (WH1) going live with an initial A$50 million commitment and near-tripling average loan unit economics.

SIZE OF LOAN BOOK A$780M 
MAKEUP OF LOAN BOOK CONSUMER LENDING (PERSONAL AND AUTO LOANS): 100%
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF LOAN BOOK AUSTRALIA: 100%
OUTSTANDING DEBT ISSUANCE

PUBLIC ABS: A$250M
WH1 (PERSONAL LOAN PRIVATE WAREHOUSE): A$450m
WH2 (AUTO LOAN PRIVATE WAREHOUSE): A$300M
HEAD CO LOAN: A$6.5M

Following Wisr’s strong credit performance and accelerated growth, the WH1 loan funding facility increased to A$350 million in Q3 FY21. On 28 April 2022, WH1 increased capacity to A$450 million.

On 11 October 2021, the A$225 million Wisr Secured Vehicle Warehouse (WH2) went live, supported by NAB as senior funder and Revolution Asset Management as mezzanine funder. As part of the deal, the existing Wisr-secured vehicle loan book of about A$127 million – with an average yield in Wisr’s target range of 8-9% – was transferred, creating about A$127 million of additional capacity in WH1 to fund growth in the personal loan book. In July 2022, WH2 capacity increased to A$400 million following the growth of Wisr’s second loan product, Secured Vehicle Loans.

Tier-one global fund manager IFM Investors replaced the Australian Office of Financial Management as the mezzanine funder in WH1 in January 2022. IFM sits alongside existing mezzanine funder MA Financial Group.

In June 2022, the company settled its second ABS transaction for A$250 million. Wisr Freedom Trust 2022-1 is made up of personal loans, with its top two tranches rated Aaa by Moody’s Investors Service and a weighted average margin of 223 basis points over one-month BBSW. The transaction freed A$250 million capacity in WH1.

The inaugural ABS transaction, Wisr Freedom Trust 2021-1 (also arranged by NAB), priced in May 2021 and achieved a Moody’s triple-A rating for its top tranche. On 3 May 2022, Wisr Freedom Trust 2021-1 received upgraded Moody’s ratings on four classes of notes issued.

Rising rate environment and FY23 outlook

Wisr hedges the floating component of its cost of funds (COF), BBSW. Between April and September 2022, the blended hedged BBSW cost increased by circa 80 basis points. In response to the realised and predicted increase in COF, the company increased front book origination weighted average yield by 340 basis points between April and September 2022*. Wisr will continue to lift yield and pricing to protect profitability and net interest margin, to remain the lender of choice in Australia for personal loans outside the big four banks.

* August and September forecast based on anticipated loan volume, corresponding yield and BBSW.