This week Vanquis Bank, part of the Provident Financial Group (PFG), further expanded its product range as part of our Group’s transition to becoming a specialist bank providing mid-cost credit products to customers in the UK.

Vanquis Bank has begun to offer loans to new customers, with a phased roll out via distribution partners such as Experian, Money Supermarket, Clearscore and TotallyMoney.

We caught up with Vanquis Bank Product Director, John Brady to find out more.

Why expand the loan proposition?

We have a number of advantages to make our loans product a success. The personal loans market is sizeable and is growing. It represents an attractive opportunity for us to offer new fixed term lending options, in addition to our credit card offering. We already have all the people, skills, processes and procedures to manage loans and support customers, so we’re not starting from scratch. We also have a growing brand presence, especially with the recent Walk Tall campaign. With our new loans journey up and running, we have everything we need.

What does the product look like for the customer?

Initially, the product will have a number of price points with customers able to borrow up to £5,000 over 12-36 months.

The customer’s signup process is all digital and customers will manage their account through a combination of online self-service and interaction with our existing Ops teams. A huge amount of work has gone into ensuring our Ops teams are ready to support the additional customers in the short term and we’re exploring what resources we’ll need as things ramp up.

What does this mean for PFG?

“This week’s launch is just the beginning. We’ll ramp up our loans offering throughout 2022 through a wider range of pricing, new channels to market and improvements to the customer journey by using the data we collect. 

This launch is a significant event for Vanquis Bank and over 100 colleagues from right across Vanquis have been involved in getting us here. It’s a great example of everyone working together.”

Until now we’ve only offered loans to our existing card customers, but from this week we’re making loans available to the open market. We’ve known for a while that there is a lot of potential for us in the loans market and a real opportunity for us to grow. More importantly, being able to offer a wider range of products to suit a wider range needs means we’re another step closer to being THE customer champion in our sector.

Neil Chandler Managing Director, Vanquis Bank