Briefs: Pioneer Credit arranges new debt facility, further executive changes at Money3, and more
Impaired debt buyer Pioneer Credit has negotiated a new senior debt facility, increasing its facility limit from A$47 million to $60 million. Pioneer said in a statement that the new facility removed a previous condition requiring quarterly amortisation of the loan. It said this change would save about $10 million in cash in the current financial year. Pioneer buys the majority of its debt from banks, with the balance coming from store finance, consumer leasing and auto leasing portfolios. The company said that at the end of September it had $25 million of headroom in its facility and free cash flow of around $30 million, and expected to invest at least $42 million in debt this financial year. Two days after appointing a new chief executive, Money3 has made two other senior management appointments. New CEO Scott Baldwin will be joined by Jenny Martin, who moves from Southern Cross Media to be chief financial officer, and Craig Harris, who moves internally to the role of general manager broker division. Peter Lock will replace John Minz as chief executive officer of Heritage Bank. Minz retires in November after 12 years as CEO and 22 years' service with the Toowoomba-based mutual. Lock returns to banking after a short stint in consulting. He was previously chief operating officer and head of corporate banking at Westpac's Bank of Melbourne brand. He is a past managing director of St George Bank in Victoria. Peer-to-peer lender RateSetter has taken the bold step of providing comprehensive disclosure of its loan book, which now stands at A$10.1 million. More than 1500 lenders have used the platform to fund 603 loans to 595 borrowers, with an average loan size of $16,700. Borrowers are paying an average of 4.4 per cent for a one-year loan, 8.2 per cent for three years and 10.5 per cent for four years. The most popular use of the finance is to buy a car, followed by debt consolidation, home improvement and holidays. RateSetter said in a statement that it was committed to transparency and it loan book details would remain public and be upgraded on a regular basis. ASIC has imposed conditions on the Australian credit licence of finance broker United Financial Services over a series of suspected loan frauds at a Sydney used car dealership. False payslips that overstated a potential buyer's income were provided to UFS, which submitted the payslips with applications for car finance to ANZ. ASIC was concerned that UFS failed to verify matters such as income and expenses of loan applicants, contrary to the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009, in the 18 months to November 2014. The loan brokerage firm is required to appoint an independent consultant and address any deficiencies in compliance identified by the subsequent review. Moody's Investors Service says the performance of Australian auto ABS transactions improved in July 2015 from June 2015, with delinquencies in excess of 30 days falling to 1.32 per cent, down from 1.47 per cent. As for the month-on-month