British group International Personal Finance (IPF), which includes the Provident Financial Romania, a company that specializes in short-term household loans, granted loans of over EUR 358 million in Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria last year, up 17% over 2015.

The operations in Romania saw the highest increase, namely 27%, according to a press release issued yesterday.

The three subsidiaries had 629,000 active customers at the end of 2015, with more than half of them in Romania. The revenues generated by the group’s operations in the three countries rose by 2.2% to EUR 206 million.

In 2016, Provident became the biggest British employer in Romania, with over 3,500 employees, as the company decided to employ its 2,900 sales representatives last year. A sales representative earns an average wage of RON 2,000 (EUR 442.3) per month.

editor@romania-insider.com