The fintech CEO said the third quarter was strong across all...

The fintech CEO said the third quarter was strong across all metrics for the business and in the early part of April transaction volume growth was flat to higher.

"We believe it's because of the defensive nature of the Zip model. We play in many categories that customers were spending in."

Before lockdown there was hoarding across the grocery sector, Mr Diamond noted. Then, as restrictions took hold, "we've seen online drive up massively since lockdown."

Post-lockdown, spending in categories such as electronics and sporting goods went "through the roof", he noted. Spending increased in everyday and home categories which was more than enough to offset weakness in other categories such as fashion,

"Our exposure to online has helped the business. Those trends have continued," he said.

When COVID-19 took hold the firm was "preparing for the worst but hoping for the best," Mr Diamond said.

"We looked at the customer side — we increased cut offs — but we also looked at our portfolio to try and determine accounts that were potentially higher risk."

The firm was helped by a very small exposure to the prepayment sector for travel and Mr Diamond said "even though we are entering a potentially challenging period for credit we are starting from a very good place."

Zip's loss rate of 1.84 per cent in net bad debt is "market-leading" Mr Diamond said. "Similarly on the repayments side — we have seen very strong repayments," with customers paying back more during April in many credit categories.

"We remain very optimistic about the future particularly in Australia where we are starting to see the government and the RBA really pushing for a quick economic recovery.

"We believe we have done a really good job over the last eight weeks and are positioned for the recovery and some of these new trends."