© Reuters.
(Reuters) – Provident Financial said on Thursday it is replacing its chief executive and renaming the company as the British subprime lender repositions itself as a specialist banking group.
The lender, which announced the plans alongside its fourth-quarter update, said new lending had been strong in the past three months as people relied on unsecured borrowing to meet expenses during the worsening cost-of-living crisis.
Its credit card business also saw strong demand ahead of the holiday season, with credit card spending up about 2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter.
Chief executive Malcolm Le May will step down in the summer and be replaced by Bank of Ireland UK chief Ian McLaughlin, the London-listed company, which will be known as Vanquis Banking Group from March, said.
“We enter 2023 with a planned new corporate identity … a new strategy of safe products with the launch of our second mortgage pilot phase and a new financing option with the approval of a large exposure waiver,” Le May said in a statement.
Second charge mortgages are subsequent and separate loans from the original mortgages in place.
(This story has been corrected to change the period to three months, not four, in the second paragraph)