Snowball becomes non-executive chairman of Provident Financial from 21 September 2018, replacing interim chairman Stuart Sinclair.
Profits at Provident Financial slumped, according to its half-year results published on Tuesday. Pre-tax profits were £34.6m for the six months to 30 June 2018 compared to £73.3m for the same period last year. Adjusted profit before tax was £74.9m down from £98.6m in 2017.
The Woodford-backed firm has also appointed Angela Knight, Elizabeth G Chambers and Paul Hewitt to the board as non-executive directors with effect from 31 July 2018.
Provident blamed weaker profits on its home credit business, which reported an adjusted loss of £23.2m.
Still, the group said its operational recovery plan is expected to be substantially in place during the second half of the year, with the objective of obtaining full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Malcolm Le May (pictured), chief executive, said: “Operationally we have made good progress. Collections performance in home credit in the second quarter did not show the improvement we expected mainly due to lower collections from customers who were live during the poorly executed migration to the new operating model last summer.
“However, customers who took credit from us since then are performing in line with historic levels, indicating to me the changes we are making to our model are working.”
Meanwhile, adjusted profits rose 6.1% in the firm’s Vanquis Bank arm to £97.2m from £91.6m last year, alongside Moneybarn which delivered a 2.9% increase to £10.6m from £10.3m.
Stuart Duncan, analyst at Peel Hunt, said the firm looks to be on track as it works through the historic issues.
Le May added: “The implementation of the home credit operational recovery plan is going well, we have commenced our ROP [repayment option plan] refund programme after a successful pilot, and we remain engaged in constructive dialogue with the FCA on their investigation at Moneybarn.
“I am confident we are well placed to make good progress on all three goals during the second half of the year and within the provisions we made in 2017.”
Integrafin has said it will provide an update regarding plans for a new chair in due course.
