IPF reports encouraging start

Doorstep lender International Personal Finance (IPF) is still finding no shortage of people coming to it for cash.

The firm, which is focused on Eastern Europe, said growth in credit issued increased 16% in the first three months of 2012, compared with the same period last year.

The number of customers it has grew by of 9%, helping push revenues up 7%.

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Its biggest market, Poland, saw customer numbers rising by 11,000 to 845,000 in the quarter and credit issued up by 16%.

It added that there had been no visible impact of economic slowdown on credit quality, with annualised impairment as a percentage of revenue remaining at 26%.

Impairment costs came in at £60.7m, compared with £61.6m the year before.

However, its pre-tax profits were hit hard by higher early settlement rebates and weaker foreign exchange rates, the firm said.

Profits fell from £8.3m in the first quarter of 2011 to £6.1m this year.

IPF issued a profits warning in December after getting caught on the hop by exchange rate movements.

"Overall, we have made an encouraging start to the year and are on track to perform well in 2012," said Chief Executive Gerard Ryan.