Steve Hulme, CFO at Zopa Bank, has shared an update on their financial performance.
Last year was an “exceptionally” strong year for Zopa Bank that reportedly “laid the foundations for their strong profitable growth.”
The firm’s management added that as people in the UK continued to navigate through the cost-of-living crisis and rising interest rates, Zopa’s proposition “became ever more relevant.”
For borrowers seeking fairly priced and responsible credit or savers seeking to find the right balance between returns and access, Zopa explains that it “offers a superior alternative to the incumbents.” These products are backed by quality customer service and “proprietary technology.”
As a result, in 2022 Zopa Bank made “a profit on an adjusted basis of £10.1m (2021: £11.7m loss).”
On a statutory basis, “using IFRS9, their loss after tax reduced to £26.0m (2021: £34.2m loss). IFRS9 takes into account future credit impairments whereas the adjusted basis is on an incurred loss basis similar to UK GAAP.”
Additional highlights of Zopa Bank’s financial performance:
In 2022 they grew their total operating income “by 131% to £151m and expanded our customer base to approximately 868,000.”
They consistently maintained their industry leadership position “with a net promoter score (NPS) of 83.”
As noted in a blog post by Zopa, this growth came hand in hand “with increased efficiency as we reduced their cost-to-income ratio by 59 percentage points to 45.8%, highlighting the scalability of their proprietary technology and operating model”
The firm added that they brought to market “even more innovative products, such as a hybrid savings account (access/notice), a new machine learning model that enhanced credit decisioning, a PCP product that doubled our total addressable market in car finance, and a credit card balance transfer product that helped customers consolidate debt, faster.”
As a result, in 2022 their borrowers “saved on average £601 when taking a debt consolidation loan while their savers earned on average 4.5x more interest at Zopa than they would have done at a high street bank.”
The company added that the total money deposited with them by their customers “exceeded £2.9bn, representing 202% year-on-year growth.”
The team at Zopa also mentioned that the main engine of this growth was their innovative, Smart Saver product, a “hybrid” (easy access / notice) savings account that “allows customers to flexibly lock their money in exchange for a higher interest rate within pots.”
H1 2023 trading update
Building on these profitable foundations, Zopa Bank continues “to deliver strong growth with almost 1 million customers using Zopa products generating an annualized revenue run rate of £250 million.”
Their proprietary technology enables them “to achieve this growth even more efficiently, bringing our cost-to-income ratio further down to 40% (2022: 45.8%).”
Their underwriting models are using AI and machine learning algorithms that “have been optimized over the last 8 years and deliver stable and better than expected credit performance.”
They also continued “to innovate on behalf of their customers, developing a regulated BNPL product which offers a responsible alternative to existing providers, and the Smart ISA which allows savers to keep more of their hard-earned returns.”
Importantly, they did that by maintaining their net promoter score (NPS) at 82.
The 2025 Fintech Pledge
In addition to their direct efforts, they felt that there was “a real opportunity for the fintech industry to get together” and do more for the wider community:
In September 2022 Zopa Bank mobilized “a growing coalition of now circa 40 fintech firms and their industry partners that joined forces to tackle the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.”
The Pledge (www.pledge2025.org) wants “to drive 10 million consumer actions by 2025 that build up the financial resilience of UK consumers by connecting people to platforms that make savings work harder, improve credit scores, consolidate debt, and lower utility bills.”
To date 5 million actions have “been completed, of which 825,000 were completed by Zopa Bank.”
Amidst the cost-of-living crisis, their proposition, “built around fairly priced credit products and attractive savings returns delivered through a transparent and world-class digital experience, has never been more relevant.”
They will continue to innovate and “make borrowing affordable and easier to manage, savings more rewarding and provide tools that can help customers to make better decisions for themselves for all their financial needs.”
