Vanquis Bank

Vanquis Bank is a subsidiary of the Provident Financial Group. Established in 2007, it offers credit building credit cards under the Visa brand for UK residents with a limited or uneven credit history. It also offers a fixed rate bond service, launched in 2011.

History

Vanquis was set up by Provident Financial and licensed for consumer credit by the OFT in 2002. It received authorisation from the Financial Services Authority the following year. Initially conceived as a pilot scheme from Provident, it received approval from the parent group to expand in 2004 and relocated to the current Head Office location in London in 2005.

Following extensive marketing and advertising, increased business volumes resulted in the customer services department moving to larger premises at Chatham in 2008, in part of what used to be the Chatham Naval Dockyards. In 2009 Vanquis rebranded, launched new credit cards and won the Credit Provider of the Year at the Credit Today Awards, something it would repeat in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

In 2011, a further call centre was opened in Bradford, and a high-yield bond product was authorised by the FSA. Vanquis also received a Passport banking license to operate in Poland in 2012.

Management structure

Vanquis is overseen by the Provident Financial board, in addition to its own management team. John de Blocq van Kuffeler is non-executive chairman of Provident, after joining the group as chief executive in 1991 from Brown Shipley. He is also chairman of Huveaux.

Managing Director Peter Crook joined Provident in September 2005, after previously being director of Barclaycard in 2000 and MD of UK Consumer Finance.

Finance Director Andrew Fisher was a former partner in Price Waterhouse and CFO of Premier Farnell, before being appointed in 2006.

Managing Director Michael Lenora joined Provident in 2007, after holding positions in Barclaycard and Goldman Sachs.

Offices

The head office of Vanquis is at 20 Fenchurch Street in London. Previous to this, the company was based in 12 Arthur Street. Originally called Minster House, it was redeveloped in 2004 by HKR Architects and Shieldpoint Ltd. The site around Arthur Street has uncovered historical artifacts dating from Roman waterfront development from around the 1st - 3rd century AD.

Vanquis also operate a call centre in Chatham, Kent, making it one of the larger employers in the Thames Gateway area.

In 2011, Vanquis opened an office in the new Southgate Complex development at 1 Godwin street in Bradford.

Products

Vanquis Bank offer three main credit building cards: Vanquis Card Classic, with an APR of 39.9%, the Vanquis Chrome card which has an APR of 29.5% and also the Vanquis Origin card with an APR of 59.9%. The card offered depends on the credit circumstances of the applicant.

Vanquis also offers personal loan products with a representative APR of 39.9% and some fixed rate savings bonds.

Company results

Provident invested £6.7m in the Vanquis business and reached the break-even point in 2007.

Vanquis provided above-estimated results in 2010, posting revenue of £162m which helped Provident to strong end-of-year figures. Many have attributed the gains made by Vanquis and Provident to the continued UK recession and the difficulty of obtaining credit from mainstream lenders with existing adverse credit, however Vanquis cite that despite an increase in applications, acceptance rates are not significantly higher.

In 2018, Vanquis was fined £2m for failing to properly disclose charges on one of its popular repayment plans. Vanquis was also forced to pay £169m back in compensation to its customers.

Charity

Vanquis Bank engage in a number of charitable causes, including Hatua, a charity created to educate children in the poorest parts of Kenya and provide books, computer equipment, learning resources and motivational guidance to talented pupils.

References

External links

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* {{cite web , url=http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews100092.html, title=Vanquis Bank Reviews, accessdate=28 Feb 2016

Banks of the United Kingdom