(Reuters) -Provident Financial said on Thursday it was replacing its chief executive officer 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 in the last four months was strong as people relied on unsecured borrowing to meet expenses during a worsening cost-of-living crisis.
Its credit card business also saw strong demand in the run- up to the festive period, with credit card spend increasing by about 2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter.
Chief Executive Malcolm Le May will step down in the summer and be replace by Bank of Ireland UK chief Ian McLaughlin, said the London-listed company, which will be known as Vanquis Banking Group from March onwards.
“We enter 2023 with a planned new corporate identity… a new secured product strategy with the launch of our second charge mortgage pilot phase and new funding optionality with the approval of the large exposure waiver,” Le May said in a statement.
Second charge mortgages are subsequent and separate loans to original mortgages in place.
(Reporting by Anchal Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
