Provident Financial

Provident Financial plc is a British sub-prime lender,[2] also described as a "doorstep lender",[3] based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. It specialises in credit cards, home collected credit (HCC), online loans and consumer car finance. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

This article is about the Bradford-based financial services group. For the now defunct Cincinnati-based financial services group of the same name, see National City Corp.
Provident Financial plc
TypePublic
LSE: PFG
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1880
HeadquartersBradford, West Yorkshire, UK
ProductsCredit cards
Home Collected Credit
Online loans
Consumer car finance
Revenue£998.3 million (2019)[1]
£128.8 million (2019)[1]
£84.4 million (2019)[1]
Websitewww.providentfinancial.com
Provident Financial HQ (Left), Bradford, West Yorkshire

History

The company was established in Bradford in 1880 by Joshua Kelley Waddilove to provide affordable credit to families in West Yorkshire.[4] The Company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1962.[5]

Provident Financial Group were one of the first financial institutions to enter into estate agency in the UK,[6] establishing Whitegate Estate Agency in two cities 1978, and by the end of the year was operating in eight Yorkshire towns.[7] The chain grew to 19 branches by the end of 1979,[8] 22 branches by the end of 1980[9] and 23 branches by the end of 1982.[10] Innovations brought to the market place included seven day opening, computerised mailing lists, a "No Sale - No Fee" guarantee and an all include fixed fee.[11] By late 1985 there were 60 branches of the chain,[12] expanding with a move into the East Midlands in 1986 to 70 branches (the 10 in the East Midlands were acquisitions which had trade during 1986 under their former names.[13] As the chain reached its 10th anniversary towards the end of 1987, the chain totaled 95 branches of which 17 were franchised,[14] rising to 107 branches (27 franchised) by the end of the following year.[15] The chain was sold for £19 million[16] in December 1989 to Legal & General.[17]

In 2002, Provident Financial formed Vanquis Bank Limited, with a full banking licence from the FSA, a consumer credit licence with the Office of Fair Trading and a licence from Visa International to operate and issue credit cards under the Visa brand. Vanquis Bank Limited specialises in the pre-paid credit cards.[18]

In 2005, the company closed its Yes Car Credit business, which had sold second-hand vehicles to customers with problematic credit histories.[19] The company had been plagued by bad publicity, including a TV investigation into its selling practices, pressurisation of staff, unreliable vehicles and debt collection methods.[20] In 2007, it demerged its international business, and a new separate public company was formed called International Personal Finance.[21] This company now holds all of Provident Financial's ex-non-UK operations, with the exception of the Republic of Ireland. It also sold the motor insurance business.[22]

In 2011, Vanquis were criticised for offering Repayment Option Plans to their credit card customers, a form of insurance some consumer sites referred to as the 'new Payment protection insurance (PPI)'.[23] In 2012, the company were the subject of an episode of the BBC documentary series Panorama, which alleged that the company were breaching Office of Fair Trading guidelines by offering loans to vulnerable people who might not have understood the implications of the contracts they were entering into. The programme featured two instances of people with mental illness who were given substantial loans, including a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia who was lent several thousand pounds. The company were criticised by the Citizen's Advice Bureau, whose chief executive told Panorama, "I call into question...the motivation to keep exploiting people who clearly can't be held responsible for their own decisions in that situation."[24]

In 2013, Provident launched its online short-term loan Satsuma Loans.[25]

In 2014, Moneybarn was acquired by Provident Financial plc, joining the home credit and online credit businesses and Vanquis Bank to become the third leg of the group.[26]

The Central Bank of Ireland in late 2014 fined and reprimanded Provident for flagrant breaches of the regulatory requirements aimed at protecting Irish consumers.[27] The five whistleblowers who reported the law breaking were then sacked by Provident, which led to the matter being raised in Dáil Éireann.[28]

On 22 August 2017, Provident Financial lost two-thirds of its stock value in a day, following its second profit warning in two months, the replacement of its chief executive by Manjit Wolstenholme, cancellation of a shareholder dividend and a warning that the full-year dividend might also be cancelled, and the announcement of an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority.[29][30] The share price, which had been £32 in April 2017, was £8.50 by the first week of October 2017.[3]

Operations

In the UK, Provident Financial trades under a number of different brands, including Vanquis for its credit cards, Provident Personal Credit for its home credit operations, Satsuma for its online instalment loans, Glo for its guarantor loans and Moneybarn for its vehicle finance operations. The home lending operations are based in the head office building on Godwin Street in Bradford, Vanquis Bank is based in London with purpose-built premises located in Chatham, Kent and Moneybarn is based in Petersfield, Hampshire.[31]

The company's home credit business lends to people in their homes via a network of local agents. Out of an estimated three million people who borrow from home credit providers, one million place their business with Provident home credit, giving the company an estimated 60% market share as of 2013.[32]

See also

References
  1. "Preliminary Results 2019" (PDF). Provident Financial. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  2. "Meet the sub-prime lender that has just cracked the FTSE 100". Daily Telegraph. 26 December 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  3. "Philip Hammond faces hot seat as bad news piles up". The Guardian. 8 October 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  4. O'Connell, Sean, Credit and community: working class debt in the UK since 1880 (Oxford University Press, 2009)
  5. "Provident Financial". London Stock Exchange. Archived from the original on 10 April 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  6. Ennew, Christine, ed. (1993). Cases in Marketing Financial Services. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. pp. 196–200. ISBN 0750606614.
  7. Provident Financial Group (1978). Annual Report 1978. p. 10.
  8. Provident Financial Group (1979). Annual Report 1979. p. 8.
  9. Provident Financial Group (1980). Annual Report 1980. p. 7.
  10. Provident Financial Group (1982). Annual Report 1982. p. 6.
  11. Provident Financial Group (1983). Annual Report 1983. p. 32.
  12. Provident Financial Group (1985). Annual Report 1985. p. 7.
  13. Provident Financial Group (1986). Annual Report 1986. p. 7.
  14. Provident Financial Group (1987). Annual Report 1987. p. 7.
  15. Provident Financial Group (1988). Annual Report 1988. p. 11.
  16. Provident Financial Group (1989). Annual Report 1989. p. 7.
  17. Whitegates (Midlands) Limited (1989). Accounts for the Period Ended 24 November 1989. p. 1.
  18. "Vanquis Bank increases interest rates on top fixed rate savings accounts". Love Money. 16 July 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  19. "Write better papers, faster!". accessmylibrary.com. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  20. Car finance glossary Archived 2008-05-26 at Archive.today
  21. Provident Financial puts £70m into demerger
  22. "Provident Financial sells motor insurance arm to GMAC for £170m". business-sale.com. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  23. "Vanquis credit cards profit from 'new PPI'". choose.net. 17 November 2011.
  24. "Doorstep lender gave 'thousands to schizophrenic woman'". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  25. Treanor, Jill (27 October 2013). "Provident Financial launches Satsuma loans at 792% APR". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  26. "Provident Financial buys Moneybarn for £120m". FT. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  27. "Central Bank is still failing us, despite all we've gone through". Irish Independent. 7 December 2014.
  28. "Call for Central Bank probe after Provident sacks 'whistleblowers'". Irish Independent. 17 June 2015.
  29. Rob Davies (22 August 2017). "Provident Financial sees nearly £1.7bn wiped off stock market value". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  30. "Provident Financial slumps the most on record". The Irish Times. 22 August 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  31. "Provident Financial lands £120 million deal". Telegraph and Argus. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  32. Bond of the Week: Provident Financial issues another new retail bond Investors Intelligence, 15 March 2013, rendering the individual interest outside standard the protection of proper free enterprise.
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