PFG.L Regulatory News (PFG)

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No 596/2014

Provident Financial plc

Board Change

02 February 2018

Provident Financial Group appoints Malcolm Le May as Group Chief Executive Officer

Provident Financial Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Malcolm Le May as Group Chief Executive Officer, with immediate effect. This follows a Board process led by Stuart Sinclair over recent months. The Board believes that Malcolm Le May is an outstanding candidate for the role, given his existing knowledge of the Group, his deep knowledge of the business and sector, his regulatory understanding and turn-around and leadership skills. In making this decision the Board has consulted with certain of its leading shareholders and discussed his appointment with the FCA. 

The Board also notes that since the trading statement on the 16th January 2018, Home Credit continues to make good operational progress, and discussions continue with the FCA in relation to the Vanquis Bank and Moneybarn investigations.

The company also announces a number of senior appointments to drive the execution of the Group's strategy under Malcolm Le May to serve customers better, enhance our relationship with the regulators, and to restore sustainable attractive returns for our shareholders:

Executive

· Chris Sweeney, MD Vanquis Bank, will continue to focus on leadership of Vanquis Bank and the successful resolution of ROP; once this has been achieved the Board intends to appoint him as Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer in addition to his Vanquis Bank role,

· The permanent appointment of Chris Gillespie, MD Consumer Credit Division, who will continue to focus on its continued successful turn around,

· The appointment of Steve Grigg, as interim Group Chief Information & Technology Officer, to define the group's long-term IT architecture.

Board

· The Board has instigated a process to appoint a new external Chairman as well as two additional non-executive directors as soon as practicable,

· The appointment of Stuart Sinclair as Interim Chairman, with Stuart moving to this role from that of Senior Independent Director, and

· The appointment of Andrea Blance, as the new Senior Independent Director (SID).

Stuart Sinclair, who led the Nomination Committee process to appoint the new Group CEO said: "It became clear to the Board as the search was progressing that the Executive Chairman who has been instrumental in driving the business forward over recent months was the best person to complete the turn around of Provident Financial Group as the new Group Chief Executive Officer."

Malcolm Le May, the new CEO said on his appointment: "My key objective is to execute a turn around of the group. We will re-establish a stronger customer focused business; conclude with our regulators the issues surrounding Vanquis Bank and Moneybarn; continue the progress being made in our Home Credit business and restore it as the pre-eminent business in its market; and ensure our businesses collaborate for the benefit of our customers and our shareholders."

Notes to Editors

1. The Board appointed Zygos search firm to help appoint a new CEO. A short list of internal and external candidates was presented to the Nominations Committee. In December the Board asked Malcolm Le May to consider being a candidate, at which time Stuart Sinclair became the Committee Chair.

2. Malcolm Le May was appointed to the Board in 2014 as an independent non-executive director and senior independent director. Following the sudden death of Executive Chairman, Manjit Wolstenholme, he was appointed as Interim Executive Chairman in November 2017.

Previously he was Co-head of banking for Barclays in New York, and helped rebuild its US franchise. He was also head of investment banking, Europe at UBS. At ING Barings, he was global head of broking and investment banking. As deputy CEO at Morley Fund Management (now Aviva Investors) he contributed to it becoming a significant player in UK fund management. He was a non-executive director of RSA. He is the senior independent director of IG Group Holdings plc, a non-executive director of Hastings Group Holdings plc, a trustee of the Grange Festival and partner at Opus Corporate Finance. He will be stepping down as an equity partner in Opus Corporate Finance and as a non-executive director in Hastings Group Holdings plc.

3. Stuart Sinclair was appointed to the Board in 2012 as an independent non-executive director, and was appointed senior independent director in November 2017. During his career Stuart has held senior leadership positions in several financial service companies including as Chairman of GE Capital China and GE Capital Bank (UK), chief executive officer of Tesco Personal Finance, director of Virgin Direct and director of Retail Banking at The Royal Bank of Scotland. Currently Stuart is the senior independent director of QBE Insurance (Europe) Limited and QBE Underwriting Limited, and also a non-executive director of Lloyds Bank plc, Lloyds Banking Group Limited, Bank of Scotland plc and HBOS plc.

4. Andrea Blance was appointed to the Board in March 2017 as an independent non-executive director. She held a variety of finance roles during a 29 year career at Legal & General Group plc. Latterly she led the strategy and marketing functions and prior to this she was group chief risk officer where she led contact with the regulator. She is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and holds degrees from the London School of Economics and City University. She is also non-executive director at Scottish Widows and Lloyds Banking Group's insurance division where she chairs the risk oversight committee.

5. Chris Sweeney is MD of Vanquis Bank. Chris joined Vanquis Bank in January 2016 to continue its sustainable growth trajectory. Prior to joining Vanquis Bank Chris was in 2010 the Chief Executive of Personal Banking, International at Standard Bank, and became Group Executive of Card Payment Solutions in January 2013 at Standard Bank. Between 2001 and 2010 he worked for Barclaycard and Barclays, across the UK, Europe and Africa. Chris has an BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham and has completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School.

6. Chris Gillespie is the MD of CCD. He re-joined the Group on 25 August 2017, where he had previously been the MD of CCD between 2007 and 2013. Since leaving the Group, he has had extensive consumer credit experience as CEO of Albermarle & Bond Holdings plc, Amigo Loans Ltd, and 118118 Money. Prior to joining CCD in 2007, he held senior roles at Barclays, HFC Bank and Bradford & Bingley.

7. Steve Grigg has worked in Government, large blue chip private and public companies, and start-ups, such as MasterCard, Travelex, Reuters and VocaLink, both in the UK and overseas. His all-round management record spans all executive C-suite technology roles, along with CEO roles in Payments Infrastructure and Cards Programme Management companies.