International Personal Finance sees 3% growth in lending

Home credit and digital loans provider International Personal Finance said on Friday that it made a good start to the year, with credit issued growth of 3%, driven by the digital division and Mexico home credit, which was partially offset by a small contraction in its European home credit markets.

The digital division saw credit issued growth of 24% in the first quarter thanks to strong demand in the company's established and new markets, while the Mexico home credit operation delivered a 5% increase in credit issued growth. This helped to offset a 4% contraction in European home credit amid a continued challenging regulatory and competitive environment.

Meanwhile, credit quality improved, with group impairment to revenue down to 26.4% from 27.8% at the 2017 year-end.

IPF said it maintained its "robust" funding position, with total debt facilities of £845m at 31 March and borrowings of £656m, along with headroom on undrawn bank facilities of £189m.

"We remain focused on serving our customers responsibly within a regulatory and competitive landscape that we expect will remain challenging.

"We continue to improve the sustainability of our European home credit businesses by investing to create a more modern, efficient and higher credit quality operation that provides a good service to customers and delivers strong returns to reward shareholders and fund growth opportunities in our Mexico home credit and IPF Digital operations."

At 1435 BST, the shares were down 1% to 235.40p.