After a series of false starts, personal lender SocietyOne is finally hitting its stride: loan originations are sharply higher, it has just secured a new warehouse funding facility with National Australia Bank, and a long-anticipated public market listing could happen this year.

A SocietyOne initial public offering has been touted for many years, after various media moguls piled into the company in 2014. But building a professional, properly governed alternative to the major banks in the $20 billion personal loan market has taken longer than expected.