APP.L Regulatory News (APP)

13 Aug 2007 12:48

Park Group PLC13 August 2007 For immediate release: 13 August 2007 PARK GROUP PLC ("Park" or "the Company") Park Prepayments Protection Trust Established Market Research Indicates Improving Confidence Park Group plc is pleased to announce that The Park Prepayments Protection Trust("PPT"), an independent trust designed to improve the security of their savers'money, is now established. Following the collapse of Farepak, Park has beenworking closely with the Department for Business, Enterprise and RegulatoryReform on better protection for our customers' payments. This trust will ensurecustomers have that additional protection for their monies. The PPT will be operated by three trustees, only one of whom is nominated byPark. The remaining two are wholly independent of the Company and will beresponsible for approving the release of the savers' monies held in the trust'sbank account. This will ensure that savers' monies in the trust account can onlybe transferred to Park with the consent of the independent trustees. Park is also backing the Christmas Prepayment Association (CPA), the recentlylaunched Christmas Savings industry trade association. As an industry watchdog,the CPA is developing a Code of Practice which must be adhered to by its membersin order to provide customers with the best possible service and to ensure thatany money paid to them by customers is safeguarded. The setting up of the PPT isfully in line with the proposed requirements of the Code of Practice. Furthermore, Park is also pleased to report results from a recent survey ofcustomers and agents that had left Park following the Farepak collapse. Thesurvey was carried out by Andrew Irving Associates and involved talking to 250former customers and agents who no longer save with Park. Its findings suggestthat confidence in the industry is returning, with 66% of those interviewedindicating that they would consider using a Christmas Savings scheme in thefuture. Peter Johnson, Executive Chairman of Park Group commented: "It is extremelypleasing to be able to offer our customers the added security of the new trustarrangements. Despite having had a faultless record for over 40 years, werecognise that customer confidence in this industry has been affected and seethis measure as being a very important step in restoring such confidence. Theestablishment of this trust, in conjunction with the positive findings from thesurvey of past customers and agents, adds further support to our optimism forthe Christmas Savings business going forward". -ends- For further information please contact: Peter Johnson / Chris Houghton Park Group plcTel: 0151 653 1700 John West / Paul YoungTavistock CommunicationsTel: 020 7920 3150 Alex BorrelliShore Capital and Corporate LimitedTel: 020 7408 4090 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange