The second investment guidance increase in FY24

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Let's then, move on now to, our next guest, and, Pioneer Credit shares are jumping the most in two months on FY24 guidance upgrade. Keith John Pioneer Credit Chief Executive joining us now. Keith, thanks so much. Just tell us a little bit about this upgrade. Yeah. I mean, so we've upgraded our investment guidance.

00:00:24:13 - 00:00:55:07
This is the amount of money we spend investing in the, impaired credit portfolios we buy from the major banks and financiers across the country. We started the year guiding to about $60 million investment. We upgraded that, around Christmas time to $85 million and have upgraded again further now to 95. So, really reflecting, you know, a very strong market for us, the removal of some competition in our market.

00:00:55:07 - 00:01:20:07
And, what we think is, you know, the unique service proposition that pioneer has. Yeah. Thank you. Talk about that, increased opportunities that you have there at the moment, in particular, accessing a servicer of impaired, consumer credit. Yeah. So I mean, the market really has, has changed dramatically in the last few years.

00:01:20:09 - 00:01:47:14
we had a lot of competition going to COVID. We've had a lot of that competition fall away in recent years, and it's fallen away for a couple of reasons, one is because of compliance and governance type issues, and the other is because of balance sheet issues, and pioneer, pioneers got an enviable reputation with respect in particular to its, to the way it services, the way it looks after consumers and supports originators brands.

00:01:47:16 - 00:02:14:17
And that's something that's really highly valued. Now more than ever, as we sort of stare into this cost of living crisis and, banks and finances, making sure they can sell those portfolios to a service that will look after the consumers appropriately, and that's what we do. And that's why we're seeing, the upgrades come through and certainly expect a pretty robust, environment for, us next year.

00:02:14:17 - 00:02:37:05
And looking out beyond that. Keith can you talk about being leveraged to the consumer? of course, we well know, and we just had that decision from the RBA, with, interest rates remaining elevated, of course, putting pressure on households at the moment. How would you describe how the consumer is faring and how that's impacting impacts the opportunities for your business?

00:02:37:07 - 00:03:02:00
For sure. look, the consumer, is unusually robust inside of financial services firms. I'm finding certainly, the people that we're dealing with. So most of our consumers don't own a home. They are impacted by interest rates, of course, through the inflation and through, the cost of living expenses and in particular, rental.

00:03:02:02 - 00:03:30:04
What we're finding with consumers is that their discretionary spend has changed dramatically, and that's certainly built off and we saw that with retail sales only last week. You know, it's a challenging time for consumers. They need to be supported through these periods, carefully and fully, and it's something that we do really, really well. you know, having a fully employed economy is a good thing.

00:03:30:06 - 00:03:54:00
it's good for us, and it allows consumers to get ahead and repay their debt and that's an important thing. As we as we come out of this situation, our consumers need to feel like they're successful and empowered, and that's what hopefully and I think will increase the full activity in our country or contribute to the increase in the productivity of our country in the future, which we so badly need.