based financial services group . for the now defunct cincinnati based financial services group of the same name see national city corp. provident financial plc type public lse pfg industry financial services founded 1880 headquarters bradford west yorkshire uk key people manjit wolstenholme chairman peter crook ceo products credit cards home collected credit online loans consumer car finance revenue 1 113.1 million 2015 1 operating income 292.9 million 2015 1 net income 218.2 million 2015 1 website www.providentfinancial.com provident financial hq left bradford west yorkshire provident financial plc is a british sub prime lender 2 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 100 index . 3 contents 1 history 2 operations 3 references 4 external links history edit the company was established in bradford in 1880 by joshua kelley waddilove to provide affordable credit to families in west yorkshire . the company s credit methods were rapidly popularised amongst the working classes but from its outset the provident was subjected to criticisms by those who were opposed to consumer credit or the costs associated with doorstep credit . 4 the company was first listed on the london stock exchange in 1962 . in 1997 it extended its operations to poland and the czech republic later operating in slovakia hungary romania and mexico . 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 card sector enabling people to use the benefits of a credit card where normally due to their credit profile they would seldom be successful in obtaining a card from mainstream card issuers . in june 2004 the office of fair trading referred a super complaint from the national consumer council expressing their concern over a perceived lack of competitiveness in the home credit industry particularly as the four largest operators accounted for around 70 % of the business in the home collected credit industry . the office of fair trading published a consultative paper which echoed this concern about the concentration of market share and referred the case to the competition commission . 5 although the competition commission s conclusion confirmed high levels of satisfaction among customers who found home credit products well suited to their needs they believed that measures should be implemented to make the sector more open and transparent . 6 they required that the website lenders compared be set up the costs of which was to borne by provident and the other large operators . 7 8 in addition all home credit operators were required to advertise the new site in documentation and advertisements and to offer customers regular statements . 9 the commission rejected the concept of price caps recognising that home credit is valued by many customers and did not believe that it would help customers if home credit were less available as a result and the potential of people then turning to unlicensed lenders loan sharks . 10 in 2005 the company closed its yes car credit business which had sold second hand vehicles to customers with problematic credit histories via a national network of retail locations offering the vehicle and finance as a single package . 11 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 . 12 in 2007 it demerged its international business and a new separate public company was formed called international personal finance . 13 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 leaving provident financial to concentrate on uk only financial products . 14 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 . 15 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 may 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 . 16 in 2013 provident launched its online short term loan satsuma loans . 17 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 . 18 the central bank of ireland in late 2014 fined and reprimanded provident for flagrant breaches of the regulatory requirements aimed at protecting irish consumers . 19 the 5 whistleblowers who reported the law breaking were then sacked by provident which led to the matter being raised in d il ireann . 20 operations edit 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 . 21 the company s home credit business lends to people in their homes via a network of local agents . out of an estimated 3 million people who borrow from home credit providers 1.0 million place their business with provident home credit giving the company an estimated 60 % market share . 22 references edit a b c preliminary results 2015 pdf . provident financial . retrieved 26 march 2016 . meet the sub prime lender that has just cracked the ftse 100 . daily telegraph . 26 december 2015 . retrieved 26 september 2016 . provident financial chases rewards where big banks fear to tread . financial times . 20 january 2016 . retrieved 26 september 2016 . o connell sean credit and community working class debt in the uk since 1880 oxford university press 2009 oft action on home collected credit super complaint doorstep agents help provident financial ride out the credit storm financial times 29 december 2007 . poverty the poor need a better deal from the banks . parliamentary brief . retrieved 2011 12 08 . lenders compared about this site . lenderscompared.org.uk . retrieved 2 april 2015 . oft review of high cost credit uncorrected evidence m11 . parliament.uk . retrieved 2 april 2015 . write better papers faster . accessmylibrary.com . retrieved 2 april 2015 . car finance glossary provident financial puts 70m into demerger provident financial sells motor insurance arm to gmac for 170m . business sale.com . retrieved 2 april 2015 . vanquis credit cards profit from new ppi . choose.net . 17 november 2011 . doorstep lender gave thousands to schizophrenic woman . daily telegraph . retrieved 21 september 2016 . treanor jill 27 october 2013 . provident financial launches satsuma loans at 792 % apr . the guardian . retrieved 17 february 2015 . provident financial buys moneybarn for 120m . ft. 14 august 2014 . retrieved 26 march 2016 . central bank is still failing us despite all we ve gone through . irish independent . 7 december 2014 . call for central bank probe after provident sacks whistleblowers . irish independent . 17 june 2015 . provident financial lands 120 million deal . telegraph and argus . 14 august 2014 . retrieved 26 march 2016 . bond of the week provident financial issues another new retail bond investors intelligence 15 march 2013 external links edit provident financial official site v t e ftse 100 companies of the united kingdom ftse 250 3i admiral group anglo american antofagasta ashtead group associated british foods astrazeneca aviva bae systems bhp billiton bp babcock international barclays barratt developments british american tobacco british land bt group bunzl burberry capita carnival centrica coca cola hbc compass group crh croda international dcc diageo direct line group dixons carphone easyjet experian fresnillo gkn glaxosmithkline glencore hammerson hargreaves lansdown hikma pharmaceuticals hsbc imperial brands informa intercontinental hotels group international airlines group intertek intu properties itv johnson matthey kingfisher land securities group legal & general lloyds banking group london stock exchange group marks & spencer mediclinic international merlin entertainments micro focus international mondi morrisons national grid next old mutual paddy power betfair pearson persimmon polymetal international provident prudential randgold resources royal bank of scotland reckitt benckiser relx group rio tinto group rolls royce royal dutch shell royal mail rsa insurance group sage group j sainsbury schroders severn trent shire sky smith & nephew smiths group sse standard chartered standard life st. james s place taylor wimpey tesco travis perkins tui unilever united utilities vodafone whitbread wolseley worldpay wpp retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title provident financial & oldid 741328880 categories companies based in bradfordcompanies established in 1880financial services companies of the united kingdom1880 establishments in englandcompanies listed on the london stock exchange navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages e tinarom n sloven ina edit links this page was last modified on 26 september 2016 at 20 16 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view