Pre-Close Briefing

Provident Financial PLC
17 December 2007

PROVIDENT FINANCIAL PLC



PRE-CLOSE BRIEFING

17 DECEMBER 2007



Provident Financial will today provide the following pre-close briefing to
analysts and investors.



Commenting on the update, Peter Crook, Chief Executive of Provident Financial
said:



'The group is very well funded and able to take full advantage of current market
conditions at a time when an increasing number of consumers in the UK are having
difficulty obtaining credit from high street lenders. Strong credit management
has produced an improvement in the level of arrears.  The group is trading well
and is expected to report strong profits growth for the year as a whole, in line
with market expectations.'



Consumer credit

Home credit

The level of new customer applications to home credit has increased in the
second half of 2007 as a result of the continued success in developing the newer
marketing channels such as direct mail and the internet, assisted by more
favourable market conditions, as mainstream lenders tighten their lending
criteria and retreat from the non-standard consumer credit market.



In order to maintain the quality of the receivables book, home credit has
continued to decline around one-third of customer applications.  Nonetheless,
the rate of customer growth has increased during the second half of 2007 and at
the end of November customer numbers were 3.8% up on the prior year.



The enhanced credit management processes introduced over the last eighteen
months, including the deployment of centralised credit scoring procedures for
all new customer applications, have kept impairment levels under tight control.
As a consequence of these improvements, home credit's charge for impairment grew
at a lower rate than both revenue and receivables during the second half of
2007.



Overall, home credit remains on track to deliver full year profits in line with
market expectations.



Real Personal Finance

The market test of this unsecured direct repayment loan product increased from 2
to 20 locations during October, as planned.  Early indications are that the
levels of new customer acquisition and collections performance are consistent
with internal projections.



We anticipate being in a position to provide further details of progress with
the market test with our full year results announcement in March 2008.




Vanquis Bank

At the end of November, customer numbers at Vanquis Bank stood at in excess of
310,000, up from 251,000 at the start of the year.  Response rates from direct
marketing campaigns and the level of internet applications have increased during
the second half of the year and the business has benefitted from a number of
mainstream credit card providers pulling back from the non-standard market.



Overall credit quality has improved further as a result of the continued
development of underwriting and arrears management.  Around 70% of customer
applications are being declined and the arrears profile of the book has improved
further.  Accordingly, the favourable trend of impairment charges rising at a
significantly lower rate than revenues and receivables has continued through the
second half of 2007.



The business moved into profitability in June, and has continued to report
profits in its management accounts in each of the subsequent five months.  We
continue to expect that it will trade at around break even for the year as a
whole.



Funding

The group's funding and liquidity positions remain strong, with minimum headroom
against committed facilities in excess of £350m and a weighted average period to
maturity of 3.9 years. This is sufficient to fund the group's medium term
internal growth initiatives and, accordingly, the group is unaffected by the
current crisis in the global credit markets.



Group

Overall, the continuing group is trading well and is expected to report strong
profits growth for the year as a whole, in line with market expectations.






Enquiries:

Investor Relations
Stuart Caldwell            Provident Financial            01274 731111

Media
John Moulding             Provident Financial             01274 731111
Nigel Prideaux            Brunswick                       0207 404 5959




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