Welcome to the presentation of Qliro's year-end report for 2021. I'm Jonas Arlebäck, and I'm acting CEO for Qliro since first of February. With me today, I have Robert, our CFO, and Andreas, our head of investor relations. Since I started my position exactly a week ago, I haven't really had a chance to introduce myself to investors, analysts, or other external stakeholders. Therefore, I will start the presentation today by introducing myself and before we jump into the more regular quarterly presentation. My name is Jonas Arlebäck and I'm very happy to have joined Qliro as acting CEO. The recruitment process for a permanent CEO is ongoing, and I will b e full-time and dedicated acting CEO until the new CEO joins the company.
I've had both CEO and acting roles in the past, and I've been a board member in a listed mid-cap company until recently, so I'm familiar with those stock exchange rules. More about that in a second. I know Qliro a bit from my previous roles at Lowell, where Qliro was a customer to us. My impression from them and from my investigations before accepting this role, and also from my first week on board, is that Qliro is a very professional fintech company with talented people. This is an excellent starting point for what I want us to accomplish here. I'm approximately 50 years old. My first 15 years of my professional life I spent as a management consultant in McKinsey and Accenture in Stockholm, London and New York.
Between 2012 and 2018, I worked with Handicare, a healthcare equipment provider. There, I held positions as CFO and then prepared for their IPO in 2018. I stayed as a member of the board of directors until last year when Handicare was bought out from the Stockholm Stock Exchange, so I know the listed environment well. After Handicare, I joined the healthcare group Aleris as business development lead before I, in 2019, joined the debt collection company Lowell. There, I was CEO for Sweden and CFO for the Nordics. Lowell decided to centralize a lot of functions to their headquarters in Leeds in England, so then I decided to leave. I did my last day at Lowell the day before I started here at Qliro.
In my entire career, I've been dedicated to helping companies in growing and developing their businesses. I get inspiration and energy from being out with customers and partners and experience the success of this and to get direct feedback on what can be improved further. Talking about the market, I think Qliro has a very interesting challenging position with a lot of well-known brands in our portfolio of merchants. I also see risks and behaviors in our competitors making them less attractive long-term payment partners to the merchants. This will help us grow in Qliro's merchants and partnership network further and I will spend most of my time in the commercial area. Enough about me for now, and let's focus on Q4 a bit before I hand over to Robert to walk you through the financials more in detail.
Operator, could you please change to slide two? For Qliro and our partner merchants, Q4 is usually the most hectic quarter with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Christmas shopping period. This quarter was no different, and in Q4, payment volumes continued to grow and volume-wise, it was the strongest quarter so far for Qliro. Another sign of the activity was that more than 1 million unique consumers used Qliro's digital platforms. Operationally, we continued to work on developing the SME offering as a complement to our large merchants offering, with focus on improving our onboarding capabilities, so the process of shifting payment partner to us becomes even swifter and easier. Total income grew compared to Q4 in 2020 and also faster than the previous quarters.
For our main business area, Payment Solutions, income grew slightly below the long-term ambition, but a step in the right direction. In the quarter, we had non-recurring items on nearly SEK 7 million for severance pay relating to the former CEO and some other restructuring and recruitment costs for a new CEO and Chairman. The credit quality continued to show strength and once again, the loss ratios were lower compared to 2020.
The focus on solid credit underwriting and the good credit performance also paved the way for a new Solution Rate Guarantee deal in Sweden for PAD products with improved terms. Solution Rate Guarantees is where you first outsource the collection of non-performing credits, and if the credit is not collected after a set number of months, the credit is sold to the debt collection agency at the predetermined price.
Please turn to page three. The volume for Qliro's own payment products, which allow for the consumer to pay after they have received the goods, continued to grow. The growth rate for these products compared to Q4 2020 was 7%. The growth pace was somewhat lower than for the full year figures, and during the quarter, the growth slowed down in December. One of the key factors affecting that was that more Christmas shopping in 2021 actually took place in physical stores compared to 2020. The growth is a combination of new merchants on the platform and organic growth from older merchants, which each this quarter contributed to the same magnitude to the growth. In our main market, Sweden, we grew 3%, while we in Norway grew with more than 50%.
The growth in Norway is a consequence of the onboarding of new merchants with a large share of their sales in Norway, but also with contributions from all the merchants which have increased their sales in Norway. When looking into the product mix, during the quarter, we saw higher growth rates for our key related products like BNPL, Buy Now, Pay Later, and Part Payments, and relatively slower growth rate for our invoice product. With that, I hand over to Robert to take you through the financials.
Thanks, Jonas. Operator, please go to page five. Let's look at the financial outcome for Q4 in comparison to the same quarter last year. Hub volume grew with 7% and total lending with 12% compared to Q4 2020. When looking at the five-quarter trend, you see the importance of the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter is usually the quarter with the highest volumes, and the two first months of the quarter was performing well. What we did see was a slower December compared to last year in terms of Christmas shopping. Nevertheless, it was the highest quarterly volume that Qliro has ever processed on the platform. The income growth in the quarter was 6%, which is higher than any quarter throughout the year. This is, of course, below our long-term ambition, but clearly a step in the right direction.
Something that I will come back to when talking about the PSP segment. The income margin is lower than Q4 2020, which is mainly driven by lower reminder fees as a result of improved customer processes. This has a negative effect on our income growth, but comes with better customer experiences and has a positive effect on our credit quality. The continuous development of our credit process is paying off, and in the quarter, we also signed a new debt collection agreement in Sweden for PSP, further improving our position. When we look at income and deduct credit losses, we have a risk-adjusted income growth of 12%, which is in line with the lending book growth. When it comes to cost, we have a 4% increase versus last year, deducting for the non-recurring item in the quarter.
To sum it up, our income grows faster than costs when we exclude the NRI, and risk-adjusted income grows in line with the lending book growth. Next, page number six, please. If we then look at the results for the year, we see a double-digit volume and lending book growth with the income growing single digit. The dampening income growth is, as mentioned in earlier presentations, due to regulatory changes in Denmark and Norway, together with the improved customer journeys, which together lowers the margin.
Good progress in the credit loss area leads to 13% risk-adjusted income growth, well in line with the loan book growth and exceeding the cost growth of 6%. All in all, for the year, the operating profit has improved SEK 16 million, reaching -SEK 41 million, a level that we strive to improve going forward. Next, page number seven , please. Let's turn our eyes towards the segments in the quarter and start with Payment Solutions that stands for the absolute majority of our income generation.
The loan book grew with 11% year-over-year, which is in line with the growth rate in previous quarters. Income is starting to pick up again after three quarters of more or less zero growth. The regulatory pressure that has dampened us throughout the year is fading out. Income grew with 4% in the quarter, but with an underlying growth of 6% as Q4 was burdened with an increased deposit fee for the year, which should have been spread out over all quarters in 2021.
Operating margin reached 21.9% in the quarter, which is a very attractive margin, although lower than last year's same period, but a similar level as Q2 and Q3 this year. The loan loss level is lower than last year and rather stable to the trend in 2021. To sum up, the segment has a very attractive margin. The margin has been under pressure throughout 2021. It has been holding the income growth back, although having double-digit balance growth in every quarter throughout the year. In Q4, that margin pressure has started to ease up. Next page, number eight, please. Let's focus on personal loans. As you know, we decided to stop our email marketing in September, which in its turn has caused us to lend out less than before. In between Q3 and Q4, the book decreased somewhat.
The loan book grew with 13% in Q4 year-over-year and income grew by 17%, meaning that operating margin level continued to grow. This is mainly due to improved scorecards, cards, enhancing our margin further without taking on more risk. The underlying credit quality in the segment has improved and no negative effects on customers' ability to pay was noted. Please notice that income after losses grows with 52% driven by strong development, both the margins and loan loss ratios. Next, page number 9, please. As you know, Payment Solutions is a seasonal business and margins can therefore be volatile in individual quarters. However, looking at the risk-adjusted margin, we can see a more stable development throughout 2021. The trend is driven downwards due to lower income margin in the segment and upwards by improved loan loss levels.
What to remember here is that negative income effect from improved customer journeys also lowers debt loss ratios in the payment segment. For Digital Banking, we see a strong growth in the margin after deducting the cost of risk. The trend has been positive, and we have improved the risk-adjusted income margin with almost 160 basis points year-over-year. We remember that we operate this segment with a very low cost base. To sum up, we see good trends both in payment solution and in personal loans when it comes to our risk-adjusted income margin. Next page number 10, please. Let's take a closer look at the credit quality. For Payment Solutions, we compare the credit losses in the P&L to the originated credit volume. As you can see, the credit quality has been rather stable the last quarters.
We see positive development in the underlying credit quality, and as mentioned before, we signed a new debt collection agreement for BNPL in Sweden. This contributed positively to the quarter. For personal loans, we compare the credit losses in the P&L to the net loan book. We have seen good development in the credit loss level during all quarters of the year, driven by improvements in the underlying credit quality and in our credit processes.
Given that, the credit quality in personal loans has improved and is now reaching 1.6% adjusted rolling twelve. For the full year 2021, we see that loan losses is 20% lower than the year before, despite a lending growth of 12% and a volume growth of 15%. To sum up, we see good trends both in payment solutions and in personal loans when it comes to our credit risk.
Next page number 11, please. Before I hand over to Jonas, let's focus on costs. As mentioned, our ambition is to grow income faster than costs over the years, but there may be variations in timing between quarters. As you know, Payment Solutions is a seasonal business, especially in the last quarters of the year. We have Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas shopping, which drives merchant sales and thereby our volume and consequently variable costs, meaning that other costs in the graph increased from Q3 to Q4. Costs increased 4% for Q4 2021 year-over-year, driven on one hand by variable costs and on the other hand by increased depreciation. The increased depreciation is due to a combination of shorter amortization periods and somewhat increased investments in our technical platform and services towards merchants.
Worth to notice is that staff costs have been rather flat over the years. To sum up, we grew income faster than costs, excluding NRI in the quarter. Our cost base is rather stable, and we reached a new cost level in Q2 2021. Having that said, we stand firm with our ambition to grow income faster than cost over the years, but there may be variations in timing between quarters. With that, I hand over to you, Jonas.
I guess it's slide 13, right? Thanks, Robert. To sum up, we see some positive trends when it comes to income growth, margin stabilization, and we continue to have a solid credit performance. 2020 to 2022 started positively with the onboarding of our newest larger merchant, Stronger, that we went live with our checkout payment solution in Sweden and Norway during January. Stronger is one of many strong brands that has Centra as their e-commerce platform. As we announced last week, we're happy that we have agreed on a partnership where we now are an integration partner to Centra. Centra has an impressive customer list with many fast-growing Swedish brands that are expanding globally. Centra themselves are also growing rapidly. We look forward to jointly working on onboarding more merchants going forward.
For the SME segment, two merchants have been onboarded since Christmas, which is a positive, as it's still early days in the development of the offering. What we also can be proud of is that the speed of integration in these cases has improved substantially. With our new analytics team, we are the first one to two months very closely monitoring each integration to ensure the payment and checkouts are fully optimized from start for each merchant. Further, we have launched a couple of new features when it comes to safe payments. In January, we launched a function in our app and web that makes it possible for consumers to who prefers it, to always trigger BankID when they purchase items through a [Klarna] merchant.
During January, we also launched an improved scorecard for Part Payments in Sweden to further improve our credit underwriting capability. Lastly, if we turn to slide 14, please. As I said in the beginning, I just joined the company and my dedicated focus together with the teams is to deliver on Qliro's growth plans. To do just that, I will spend most of my time to actively involve myself in acquiring new merchants and partners, as well as develop our current partnerships. With the payment platform and supporting services Qliro has in place, I think we are in a very good position to grow from here. During December, the management team and the board decided on an updated strategy. The strategy increases the focus on being the best partner for both large and SME merchants in the Nordics.
Since I'm only one week in my new job, we will not present the updated strategy today. Instead, we will soon send out save the dates and invites for a separate strategy update session, which will take place during the second half of March. With that, we conclude our presentation and open up for Q&As.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. We have a question from the line of [Ermin Karic] from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Good morning, thanks for taking the questions. Also, apologies I came in slightly late here on the call, so you might have already answered some of the questions. Jonas, welcome aboard, maybe a first question directly to you on what's your impression so far? Do you see any particular kind of growth pockets or opportunities that haven't been fully pursued by Qliro that you intend to focus on?
Thank you. I mentioned a little bit in the presentation there that I've seen some of Qliro before when I was in Lowell and Qliro was a customer to us. What I was impressed with then was the professionalism in, you know, having a very solid credit management and the basics in a very mature way that you would expect in a financial or fintech company. Like I said, I have verified that this week, so it is a very good foundation to start from. When I've been here this week, I'm also very impressed by our products that we already have and the product roadmap we are on.
I think that makes us the strongest focused payment provider in the Nordics. That's something I would explore further and explain further to the markets with merchants and with partners like the e-com platform providers. I think we can be a very good long-term partner to them based on all this. At the same time, a little bit connected to what I said there, I mean, I've also seen some of our competitors from my previous job in Lowell. I think there are opportunities, I would say, phrase it, for Qliro to be a bit more clearer on our strength versus these competitors.
I think I'm in a very good position to communicate that or explain that. Something I will spend time on as well. Just lastly, I would also say I'm very impressed by our support, our customer and merchant support that we have here. It's top-notch, and I know that we have been given awards for that, and it's also a very strong selling point towards our the merchants.
If I just may follow up on that a little bit. When you say that you could be a bit more clear on your offering, is that mainly towards the consumers or the merchants?
I would say the merchants. I think that's where we are focusing very much right now to be the best partner for the merchants. As I said, I mean, we are one of the few really focused players in this on payments. I mean, we have competitors that are mainly in other businesses, but they're doing a little bit payment services or products on the side, so to speak. I think what that gives us this opportunity to focus all our product development, our support and service development in this specific area, which will and is already making us the best partner for the merchants.
Thanks for the additional color. Looking a little bit more on the segments, we saw the Payment Solutions coming back to growth in Q4. Could you give any indication to what to expect in the coming quarters or the coming year or so?
I mean, first of all, BNPL segment, as I mentioned in the presentation, it is a seasonal business. It has a very attractive margin of around 22%. What we've seen during the year is that we have had a 12%-15% book growth. We have had an income growth that has not met the balance growth during the first three quarters, and it's been practically zero. Now in Q4, the income growth in BNPL is increasing, and we have an underlying growth of around 6%. That is of course because of the regulation that has the effect on us year-over-year is starting to fade out. You know, we are looking positively to the development in the payment business, going forward.
Moving over to Digital Banking, do you still see that as like, is it clear that that's still gonna be part of the core strategy to grow personal loans given the development that we've seen during fall?
I can answer that, I mean, on the outset, I think personal loans will still be a part of the strategy for Qliro as of now. I don't see that we will change that in the near term. I think what we will do is that we will evaluate how we can come back to growth in the portfolio, given that we closed down one of the main channels for new sales. I think we will work on how we can market offer in a better way towards customers. I think still it is a valid product which we drive with good margin and a very low cost base to have that product, and with a good value for the client as well.
Okay. Thank you. One final question would just be on the NPL side. I believe you have a new deal in Sweden for selling NPL. Will that have any larger implications on the loan losses we should expect going forward with provisioning?
I think, I mean, we are very happy about the development and the hard work we've done in the credit part of our organization. We have worked with our credit quality and our credit processes and that is paying off with a better debt collection deal. I mean, we have reduced our loss ratios throughout the year, and I expect us to be hovering around that number going forward.
Got it. Thank you. That's all for me.
Thank you.
As there are no further questions, I will hand it back to the speakers.
Okay. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and we will soon send out the invite for the strategies session end of March. Then, of course, our Q1 report will be released in May. Please feel free to hand out questions or reach out to us if you have any questions in the meantime.