Analyst Pre-Close Briefing

Provident Financial PLC
02 December 2002



ANALYST PRE-CLOSE BRIEFING - 2 DECEMBER 2002

The overall trading performance of the group during the first eleven months of
the year has been in line with expectations.

In UK home credit, customer growth and credit quality are broadly as expected,
with bad debt as a percentage of credit issued for 2002 likely to be just over
9%.  Our guidance is for modest growth for 2002.

The International division continues to perform well.  In the first eleven
months of the year customer numbers increased up by 188,000 (26.6%) to 896,000.
Credit issued has also increased rapidly.  Our businesses in Poland and the
Czech Republic continue to deliver excellent growth, improving margins and
rising profits.  Credit quality in both countries is within our target ranges.
The more recently established businesses in Hungary and Slovakia are also
progressing well.  The outlook for 2002 for the International division is
unchanged.  We continue to expect strong growth in customer numbers, credit
issued and overall performance.

After a better than expected start to the year, the motor insurance division has
now begun to experience the long awaited downturn in the insurance cycle.
Premium rates in the market are flat whilst claims inflation continues at about
7% per annum.  We continue to price for profit and so we are beginning to see a
contraction in policyholder numbers and written premium.  However, as a result
of the good start to the year and the flow through into the second half of the
year of premium earned on policies written in the first half of the year, we
expect the out turn for 2002 will be similar to that for 2001.

In summary, we remain confident about the group's progress for the year.


Enquiries:

Media

David Stevenson           01274 731111



Investor Relations

Rachel Yates              01274 731111




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange