Short Selling Disclosure

Short Selling Disclosure

AQR Capital Management, LLC

TR-41:	Â	Disclosure of Short Position relating to UK Financial Sector Company2
1. Full name of person(s) holding the disclosable short position3:			Â	AQR Capital Management, LLC, investment advisor to the legal fund entity AQR Absolute Return Master Account, L.P., which individually has short positions greater than 0.25% and is included in the aggregate disclosable short position below.
2: Name of the issuer of the relevant securities				Provident Financial Plc
3: Disclosable short position4				0.77%
4. Date that disclosable short position was held				January 4, 2011

¹ This form, or the information contained within it, should be disclosed via an RIS using the short code SSD.

² This form relates to the disclosure of short positions in compliance with the FSA’s Short Selling (NO2) Instrument and the related FAQ document on the FSA's website.

³ Specify the owner or controller of the interest. The naming of nominees or vehicle companies is insufficient. In the case of positions held by fund managers on behalf of discretionary clients, the clients need not be named. Positions may be aggregated in some cases. See FAQ document for further details.

⁴ Figure to be expressed as a percentage of issued share capital. Disclosable short position is defined in the Glossary of Definitions in the FSA Handbook. Positions must be disclosed on a net basis of all holdings. All financial instruments that represent a direct interest or direct economic interest in the relevant issuer must be included within such holdings.

Form TR-4. FSA Version 1.0 September 2008