Provident Financial plc (LSE: PFG) is a financial services group based in Bradford, UK.
It specialises in Home Collected Credit (HCC) and also owns Vanquis which offers credit cards.
It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
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. 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 2007 the company demerged and the international division began trading as a separately listed company called International Personal Finance.
The company's biggest business is lending to people in their homes via a network of local agents. Out of an estimated 3 million people who borrow from HCC providers, 1.8 million place their business with Provident Financial, giving the company an estimated 60% market share.
Source: Wikipedia
