Goeasy Ltd. GSY-T, a personal lender for subprime borrowers, shocked investors with surging loan losses and a suspended dividend, sending its shares tumbling 45 per cent in early Tuesday trading.
Based in Mississauga, Ont., Goeasy made its name during a credit boom fuelled by ultra-low interest rates. Between 2015 and 2025, the company’s shares soared more than 1,000 per cent and investors salivated over Goeasy’s relentless growth.
Over the past year, however, there have been growing concerns about the quality of its loans, and on Tuesday the company said it will book an incremental $178-million charge for bad loans, as well as a $55-million writedown for loan interest and fees when it reports fourth-quarter earnings at the end of the month.
Goeasy also withdrew the fourth quarter business outlook it had previously reported, as well as its three-year financial forecast. Adding more uncertainty, the company also suspended its quarterly dividend.
“We expect pressure on net charge offs and higher delinquency reporting for the coming quarters, before an anticipated improvement in 2027,” chief financial officer Felix Wu said in a statement. Net charge offs are a financial industry term for loan losses.
The root of the deteriorating outlook is a division called LendCare, which was acquired by Goeasy in 2021. To fix the division, Goeasy has a appointed a new head, Farhan Ali Khan, and the company also pledged to reduce loans from LendCare’s auto and powersports arms.
One issue flagged on Tuesday relates to LendCare’s reporting methods. Goeasy said that going forward it will be change its reporting methodology, because certain customer payments were being recorded as received, while they were in fact in the process of being settled at month end, “some of which were ultimately not collected, and also impacted the company’s reported delinquencies.” However, Goeasy said the change is “not material.”
The recent financial turmoil follows management upheaval at Goeasy. In July, 2024, chief executive officer Jason Mullins announced his plans to retire after 14 years with the company, which kicked off a CEO search. In March, 2025, Dan Rees, the former head of personal banking at Bank of Nova Scotia, was named the new CEO.
Yet in December Goeasy said Mr. Rees was leaving because of a blood disorder, and announced Patrick Ens, an internal candidate, as his replacement.
In all, since Mr. Mullins said he would retire in 2024, Goeasy’s shares are down more than 60 per cent.
