Amigo boss resigns as subprime lender continues wind down
The chief executive and director of controversial subprime lender Amigo resigned from his role yesterday as the firm continues its wind down.
Danny Malone, who joined Amigo last year, will step down after serving his 6-month notice period to ensure “the continuation of the solvent and orderly wind-down of the business”.
Malone said he joined as he saw the potential for Amigo to provide its proposed new product, RewardRate, in “a market which is crying out for supply”.
“Unfortunately the investment market, particularly into the sector in which Amigo operates, was extremely difficult and we were unable to raise the capital required,” Malone said.
“The business is in wind down, which will have progressed enough over the next six months for me to hand to others to complete,” he continued.
Chair Jonathan Roe said: “Danny was a tireless leader of the executive team in our search to secure commitments for new financing for Amigo, which unfortunately proved impossible to secure. He was also integral to getting our RewardRate product into the market.”
Amigo has been heading for a wind down since it stopped business at the end of March having failed to raise £15m in emergency cash.
According to the wind down, £97m will be offered to the firm’s creditors with a mechanism put in place to return excess cash to creditors of the scheme.
The subprime lender had been on life support since it was suspended from lending by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2020 for failing to perform adequate checks on consumers it lent to.
The FCA publicly censured Amigo earlier this year but spared the firm a £72.9m fine on the grounds it would prevent the firm from paying out compensation to customers.