Provident Financial confident on profit forecasts

Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:42am BST

[-] Text [+]

LONDON (Reuters) - Consumer lender Provident Financial (PFG.L) said on Wednesday it was confident of meeting analysts' full-year profit forecasts.

A poll of analysts by Reuters Estimates forecasts Provident will deliver annual pretax profit of 126 million pounds in 2008.

"We're happy with those numbers (126 million) in the market for the full year," Chief Executive Peter Crook told Reuters.

Crook said in a telephone interview Provident's Vanquis Bank credit card business aimed to have half a million customers by 2010 -- up from today's 374,000.

Earlier on Wednesday, Provident reported a 34 percent rise in half year profit, slightly ahead of market forecasts and predicted it would continue to grow in the second half.

(Reporting by Rhys Jones)

Do banks do "God's work"?

The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, which has attracted widespread media attention over the size of its staff bonuses, believes banks serve a social purpose and are doing "God's work". Blog