Provident hit by shortage of debt collectors

22nd June 2017
 Provident Financial has published its latest financial results and states that a fall in the number of debt collection agents at its home credit division will weigh on profits for the rest of the financial year.

The company said a reorganisation of the business had led to a rise in the number of self employed part-time agents leaving the business and replacing them with 2500 full-time workers.

Chief executive Peter Crook said “The strategic rationale for the change remains strong and I am confident that it will deliver the substantial benefits previously communicated. The incentives we had in place and the other management actions and communications that were there, were not sufficient to retain the number of agents that we anticipated,”

Operational disruption had led to more uncollected home credit and hit sales penetration and customer retention.