Nice Loans.co.uk > News > Firstplus stops loans

No loans at Firstplus

When one of the most well known loan providers closes for business, it's an indication that things are really tough in the loans industry. What provided even more evidence of the significance was the big fall in share value of Moneysupermarket, a financial comparison website that relies heavily on companies like Firstplus to generate it's profits.

Firstplus became part of Barclays bank when the Bank took over Woolwich a few years ago and the lender contributed healthy profits for the banking group by taking a leading position in the provision of secured loans to borrowers with imperfect credit records. It became infamous for it's debt consolidation adverttising on TV which featured the presenter Carol Vorderman. She was tied into a long term deal and continued to feature in the ads even though she received critism in the press for being involved in advertising that type of loan.

Another loans company, Loanmakers, has also announced it will suffer as a result of the closure at FirstPlus, which shows how deeply the problems are spreading across the instry.

Firstplus has said it will continue to operate but because it is not taking on any new loans, it has no need for around 75 per cent of it's existing staff. That means 300 people are set to lose their jobs at the Cardiff based company. The claim by Moneysupermarket that the shutdown will directly affect it the tune of £7 million in revenues seems a slight exageration. Is this just a case of some bad news waiting for an opportunity to be released? The markets slammed Moneysupermarket for that move and it's shares fell to their lowest level since the company floated.

The closure at Firstplus will open up the market for other loans providers, but reduce the choice for customers looking for secured loan.

<<< Return to news page | Request cheap secured loans >>>