Analysts'Brief/Trading Update

Provident Financial PLC
30 November 2001


                  Provident Financial plc - 30 November 2001

                              Analysts' Briefing

The company will today speak with analysts at a pre-close period briefing
ahead of its key Christmas trading period and its year end. It will make the
following comments about trading during the 10 months ended 31 October 2001
and the outlook for the year.

Group Outlook for 2001

We are making good progress. Profits are growing in line with our expectations
and we remain confident of a good result for 2001.

UK Home Credit Division

The UK home credit division is achieving slow but steady growth. We said when
we announced our 2000 results in February of this year that we expected
customer numbers, credit issued and profit for 2001 to grow at similar rates
to 2000. That remains our view.

Credit issued in the first 10 months has grown by 3.6%, in line with
expectations. Customer numbers have grown by 0.6% compared to October 2000.

We have continued to focus on maintaining the quality of our lending and that
has been successful. Bad debt as a percentage of credit issued remains within
our target range for 2001 of 8.0% to 8.5%.

International Division

In the International division, our aims for this year were to bring our
operations in both Poland and the Czech Republic into profit for the year, and
to open pilot operations in Hungary and Slovakia. Our progress to date has
been good.

Poland

Poland, our largest international market, has recorded a profit before tax of
£3.1 million for the 10 months to 31 October 2001 (loss before tax of £4.2
million 10 months to 31 October 2000) and is on course to produce a good
profit for the year. Credit issued has grown strongly - up by 147% to £126
million for the 10 months to October 2001. Customer numbers increased by 91%
to 462,000 in the 12 months to 31 October 2001 (416,000 at 30 June 2001). Bad
debt remains under control with the headline rate of bad debt as a percentage
of credit issued at 8% and the underlying bad debt charge as a percentage of
credit issued running at 9-9.5%.

Czech Republic

Our business in the Czech Republic has been consistently profitable each month
since February 2001 and has reported a profit before tax of £1.7 million for
the 10 months to 31 October 2001 (loss before tax of £1.3 million 10 months to
31 October 2000). It is also on course to record a good profit for the year.
Credit issued has increased by 55% to £43 million in the 10 months to October
2001. We reported at the half year that we had experienced a rising level of
bad debt as a percentage of credit issued. This rise continued in the third
quarter. The headline rate of bad debt at the end of October 2001 was 10% and
the underlying rate is running at 11-12%. At the half year we said we intended
to address the rise in the level of bad debt in the Czech Republic by the
introduction of a more cautious approach to credit granting and new customer
recruitment. These actions have resulted in a temporary halt to the growth in
customer numbers that had grown by 33% to 179,000 over the 12 months to 31
October 2001 but reduced a little from the 184,000 customers reported at June
2001. We are now seeing a beneficial impact, with the rate of increase in the
level of bad debt slowing in recent weeks. The financial performance of the
business remains good and we look forward to resuming growth during 2002.

Hungary and Slovakia

Hungary and Slovakia are in the early stages of the pilot operation and both
are performing well. We currently have 4 offices, 9,000 customers, good
collections and low bad debts.

South Africa

South Africa has continued to experience tough trading conditions. We have
recently commenced a consultation process with our staff and unions in South
Africa that contemplates closure of the business. If such a closure were to
proceed, South Africa is expected to report a loss for the year of £3.7
million.

Summary

Overall, excluding South Africa, the International division is on course to
record a small profit for the year (2000 losses £6.7 million).

Insurance Division

The Insurance division continues to perform well, benefiting from conditions
at the top of the insurance cycle and our expectation remains for good profit
growth for the division in 2001. Provident Insurance's written premiums and
policyholder numbers have continued to grow. Policyholder numbers reached
858,000 at October 2001 and now exceed the highest number at the peak of the
previous insurance cycle. Premiums in the motor insurance market have remained
almost unchanged since April 2001. Whether the recent firming of premium rates
seen in other classes of insurance extends to UK private car insurance in 2002
remains to be seen. We intend to continue to focus on writing profitable
business and to increase our premiums.

Share buy backs

Since the half year we have repurchased for cancellation 3.8 million shares at
a total cost of £23.2 million and an average cost per share of £6.15.

Results Announcement

The group's results for the year ending 31 December 2001 will be announced on
27 February 2002.

John van Kuffeler

Chairman

30 November 2001



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