Provident: Romanians are the best payers in Europe

UK-based Provident Financial, a company that offers small-value home loans, targets 300,000 clients by 2012. The company will invest 11 million euros this year alone to expand its territorial presence, so as to reach national coverage by the end of 2009. “We have now reached 40,000 clients, while 15 months ago we had 6,000, and we expect this growth trend to accelerate, and bring the number of clients to 300,000 in three or four years’ time,” says John Mitra, the marketing and communications manager of UK-based International Personal Finance, which controls Provident Financial Romania. Present on the local market since 2006, following an investment worth 2.4 million pounds, Provident Financial is the first financial institution to specialise in home loans in Romania. During the two years since its launch, the company has granted home loans to over 50,000 people, 40,000 of which are active clients. “Currently, Romanians are the most reliable payers at a European level, because they are more disciplined and have a rather high employment rate. Under the circumstances, I can safely say that the Romanian consumer’s appetite for credits has been on the rise over the last 18 months,” adds Mitra.