Press releases 2012

• Five and a half year, fixed-rate bond
• Company’s third and largest retail bond to date
• Latest issue brings total funds raised by Provident Financial on ORB to £195.2 million

Provident Financial plc, the UK’s leading supplier of personal credit products to the non-standard lending market, has today listed its third bond on the London Stock Exchange’s Order book for Retail Bonds. The five and a half year, fixed-rate bond is tradable in denominations of £100 and will pay a semi-annual coupon of seven per cent per annum.

Investec Bank and Barclays Bank were joint lead managers for the issue, which was over subscribed. The retail bond is the largest to date for Provident Financial and brings the total raised by the Company on ORB to £195.2 million.

Pietro Poletto, Head of Fixed Income Markets at London Stock Exchange Group, said:

“We are delighted that Provident Financial has chosen to list its third retail bond on ORB. The placing builds on the success of their two previous issues and is their largest to date, raising £120 million. ORB is now in its third full year of trading and continues to attract a number of high calibre issues from a range of companies across varying business sectors”.

Andrew Fisher, Finance Director of Provident Financial plc said:

“We are very pleased to announce the success of our third issue of bonds to be listed on the London Stock Exchange’s ORB platform. The continued development of the retail bond market has provided an important strand for our programme to diversify our funding and we are delighted by the response to this latest issue. The bond exceeded expectations drawing support from a wide range of brokers and their retail customers”.

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For further information, please contact:

Ed Clark                                             Press Office +44 (0)20 7797 1222
                                                             newsroom@londonstockexchange.com

Notes to editors:

About the Order Book for Retail Bonds (ORB):
The Order Book for Retail Bonds (ORB) is the London Stock Exchange’s electronic platform for private investors trading fixed income securities. The ORB offers continuous, transparent, two-way tradable prices in over 150 individual UK gilts, supranational and corporate bonds, all tradable in typical denominations of £1,000 or less. Introduced in February 2010 in response to strong demand from private investors, it offers issuers a high profile route to raise debt capital from a retail audience.

About London Stock Exchange Group:
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE.L) sits at the heart of the world’s financial community. The Group operates a broad range of international equity, bond and derivatives markets, including London Stock Exchange; Borsa Italiana; MTS, Europe's leading fixed income market; and Turquoise, offering UK and Russian derivatives trading, pan-European and US lit and dark equity trading. Through its markets, the Group offers international business unrivalled access to Europe’s capital markets.

The Group is a leading developer of high performance trading platforms and capital markets software and also offers its customers around the world access to an extensive range of real-time and reference data products and market-leading post-trade services. The Group is also home to a world leading index provider FTSE, which creates and manages over 200,000 equity, bond and alternative asset class indices.

Headquartered in London, United Kingdom with significant operations in Italy and Sri Lanka, the Group employs around 1,850 people.

Further information on London Stock Exchange Group can be found at www.londonstockexchangegroup.com