Provident Continues to Maintain a Presence in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes

BRADFORD, England, December 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Provident is continuing to carve out a reputation as one of the world's most responsible financial companies by once again being included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.

The DJSI World tracks the performance of the top 10% of the 2500 largest companies in the Dow Jones Global Total Stock Market Index that lead the field in terms of sustainability, with the DJSI Europe monitoring the sustainability performance of the top 20% of the 600 largest European companies.

For the seventh successive year, Provident has been selected for inclusion in both the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) and Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Index (DJSI Europe).

The Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes were launched in 1999 as the first global sustainability benchmarks. The Indexes are based on an internationally recognised leading Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) methodology which means that they include only companies that fulfil certain sustainability criteria which is better than the majority of their peers.

Provident's overall score in the 2011 Indexes was 63% (2010: 59%) - 23% points higher than the average overall score of the other companies in the financial services sector - with 'best in class' scores for environmental monitoring and reporting, and scores of over 80% in respect of a range of other CR issues, including anti-crime policy/measures, stakeholder engagement and social reporting.

Rob Lawson, Corporate Responsibility manager at Provident Financial said: "We are delighted to continue to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes and remain committed to disclosing information on our corporate responsibility (CR) performance to our stakeholders."

Rob Lawson concluded: "Our continued inclusion in the Indexes is no mean feat, and is testament to the progress we've made over the past seven years in embedding our CR programme throughout our business. It also endorses our approach to CR management and shows that we compare favourably to other global companies."

About Provident Personal Credit:

Provident Personal Credit is a market leading financial services company operating in the non standard loans market. It specialises in offering cash loans of small amounts, typically from £50 - £500 over terms from 14 weeks up to 106 weeks. It's short term loans are unsecured and all of the costs are included up front which means that customers will never be charged for a missed or late payment. When assessing loan applications, Provident Personal Credit look at the applicants ability to repay now rather than at their payment history. This means that people could still be accepted for a personal loan even with a bad credit history or if they have missed payments in the past. Repayments are collected by Agents who visit their customers' homes on a weekly basis. The company has a good reputation with 95% of their customers saying that they are satisfied with their service.

What's more, it is a great alternative to payday loans with small and manageable weekly repayments.

Provident Personal Credit is a subsidiary of Provident Financial Group. They are licensed by the office of fair trading.  

PR Contact:
Emma Noble
PR Executive
Provident Financial
1 Godwin Street
Bradford
BD1 2SU  
+44(0)1274-351135
http://www.providentpersonalcredit.com