Guarantor lender Amigo's revenue falls 37% in nine months to end-2020

(Reuters) - British subprime lender Amigo reported a 37% fall in revenue in the nine months to the end of 2020, and warned it faces "material uncertainties" while it waits to hear if its scheme to handle compensation payments for a huge backlog of customer complaints is approved.

The company, which saw revenues drop to 137.5 million pounds ($194.56 million) over the period, also reported that its net loan book has been reduced by over 40%, while 62,000 of its customers were on loan payment holidays. It has paused all new lending until the regulator approves its planned approach to restart it.

The lender has had to provision millions of pounds to handle compensation payments caused by a large number of customer complaints and has been investigated by the financial regulator over how it assesses customer credit worthiness. This has hampered Amigo's ability to operate and it has warned that unless its proposed scheme for dealing with compensation payments is approved, it may not survive.

Amigo is also reducing its workforce by 17%, laying off around 70 employees.

($1 = 0.7067 pounds)

(Reporting by Clara Denina; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)