FSA Group, which specialises in providing services to people who want to enter into payment arrangements with their creditors, has suffered a big drop-off in business as a result of government and financial sector COVID relief measures.

FSA’s 2020/21 financial report shows the number of new informal agreement and debt agreement clients falling 66 per cent to 1463 in the year to June. Total client numbers in this category fell 20 per cent to 15,780.

New personal insolvency agreement and bankruptcy clients fell 74 per cent to 89 over the year and total client numbers fell 21 per cent to 1025.

The company said it is “uncertain when demand will return”.

FSA is also a mortgage and consumer lender, and it has turned its attention to that side of the business. Up to now it has generated business through direct channels but its plan now is to establish a broker channel.

It plans to expand its product range, including small business loans. It aims to increase monthly mortgage originations from around A$10 million a month currently to $40 million and to increase personal loan originations from $3 million a month to $7 million.

And it is on the lookout for companies to partner with or acquire.

Its home loan book is worth $382 million – down 3 per cent from the previous year. Its personal loan book is worth $65 million – an increase of 3 per cent.

Overall, the business suffered a 10 per cent fall in operating income to $61.4 million. After making a significant reduction in expenses, the company reported a net profit of $20.8 – an increase of 19.8 per cent over the previous year.

The company is in a strong cash flow position, generating $29.5 million from operating activities, compared with $19.4 million in 2019/20.