Anthony Collier and Thomas MacLennan of FRP Advisory and Joint Administrators of Cheque Centres Limited (in Administration) (the “Company”) have appointed Hilco Valuation Services to actively seek interested parties with regards to the sale of certain IP assets in relation to Square Today. Square Today is an online loan platform and lending business created to serve customers in the subprime and near prime sectors in the UK high-cost short-term credit market.

Background
The Company was historically one of the largest UK pay day lending businesses on the high street and traded under the Cheque Centres brand. Realising the future lay online, it developed Square Today and launched www.squaretoday.co.uk an online lending business.

As part of the development and launch of Square Today the Company carried out market research into subprime and near prime customers, designed and created the Square Today brand, built a new website and back-end lending platform which are all fully operational.

The Company had carried out a “test and learn” phase over May-December 2016 and leant close to £1m through the website and platform (the loans were repaid during 2017 and outstanding borrowing was forgiven to expedite a wind down plan). The Company received a credit licence from the FCA in April 2016 ahead of the test and learn phase but this was voluntarily cancelled as part of the orderly wind down in August 2017.

Available Assets

• Square Today Website. The front-end website was designed with a central focus to ensure customer journeys that are quick and easy to navigate, key features include:
  - Mobile first design principles (to best meet customers’ needs)
  - Responsive Design™ Web development to cater for all screen sizes
  - Simple, staged and well sign-posted application journey that reassures customers throughout their loan application
  - Information fields designed on a ‘must have’ basis only
  - Dedicated starting points for subprime and near prime products
  - Clear and concise design look and feel

• Lending Platform and Integrated Software developed by Equiniti-Pancredit – a flexible and configurable platform delivers an automated customer delivery journey and decision engine including: Policy Exclusions; Identity & Verification; Credit Evaluation; Affordability Assessment; Fraud Check; Risk Based Pricing and Pre Disbursement Checks.

Scorecard and fraud checks were developed but contract have now lapsed and would need to be reinstated

• Goodwill rights in the Square Today brand. Square Today’s customer proposition was “Simple, easy to manage loans, with no fees, shaped around you.”

• Branded domain names - www. squaretoday.co.uk and www.squaretoday.com 
• Customer research: from Two Ears & One Mouth and Vizeum, E-benchmarker data for funnel conversion, Customer profiles and segments from national customer databases and Mintel loan demand data.
• Competitor Research: Hitwise to understand competitor site traffic drivers, AdDynamix to understand advertising spend and creatives, Google analytics to understand baseline site traffic alongside media investment, Facebook Audience Insights (via Ad Manager).
• Bespoke near prime and subprime scorecards;
• Product documentation including: Hardware / System description; Incident Management & SLA; Architecture Visual Overview; Website Application Servers (Production Environment); Website Application Servers (Test Environment); Site to Site VPN and Backup and Recovery.

Diligence & Sale Process

Hilco Valuation Services is currently soliciting interest in the assets from qualified buyers. Bid Submission: Bids to be provided in writing by the Bid Deadline.

For further information and to request an NDA, please contact: Nat Baldwin, Hilco Valuation Services

Terms & Conditions

The buyer understands that Hilco Valuation Services act as agent for the Joint Administrators who offer for sale only what right title and interest Cheque Centres Limited (in Administration) possess in the assets. The information provided has not been verified and buyers are deemed to have carried out their own due diligence of the assets. A deposit of 30% will be payable by the buyer within 48 hours of offer acceptance. VAT at 20% will be added to the price. Legal completion to occur within 5 business days of bid acceptance. Full Terms and Conditions apply