Investors' Briefing

Provident Financial PLC
15 May 2002

                     Provident Financial plc - 15 May 2002

          Investors' Briefing on Central European Home Credit Business





The company will today announce the following information to investors visiting
its Central European operations.

Customer numbers continue to grow strongly. In the first four months of 2002,
customer numbers increased as follows: Poland up by 36,000 (7.1%) from 504,000
to 540,000; Czech Republic up by 9,000 (4.8%) from 189,000 to 198,000; Hungary
up by 9,000 (90%) from 10,000 to 19,000 and Slovakia up by 4,000 (80%) from
5,000 to 9,000.

Bad debt as a percentage of credit issued remains within the expected ranges in
each country.



Name of contact and telephone number for queries:

Rosamond J Marshall Smith 01274 731111 ext. 2356

Company Secretary



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