PROVIDENT FINANCIAL PLC EXPANDS HOME CHEQUE CASHING SERVICE WITH

HERTFORD INTERNATIONAL GROUP PLC

Hertford International Group (AIM: HIG), a provider of personal financial products and services, announces the expansion of the home cheque cashing service being trialled in partnership with Provident Financial plc. The operational systems supporting this service are provided by Cheque Exchange Limited, the cheque cashing business acquired from Provident by Hertford in January, earlier this year.

This trial, which began in February 2009, is part of an initiative to realise the potential for residential cheque cashing as compared to the traditional in-store service. Provident Financial's agents already offer a variety of personal financial products on a door-to-door basis, and now an increased number of these agents will be able to provide customers with the opportunity to cash their third-party cheques in the comfort of their own home.

The original pilot involved just two hundred agents offering the home cheque cashing product from within three of Provident's forty regions. The trial to date has progressed well, and on the 18th of May the service is being expanded to around 800 agents through the three regions. This expansion will be delivered by seventeen area managers and their branches.

Commenting, Lewis Findlay, Hertford Chief Executive, said: "This home cheque cashing initiative presents a very significant opportunity for Hertford, in partnership with Provident, to significantly increase our market share, as we hope to eventually offer cheque cashing facilities to the doorsteps of 1.7 million homes through Provident's agent network."

Commenting, Michael Palmer, Provident Director Home Credit, said: "Provident had for some time planned to expand its product offering to include the cashing of third-party cheques to our home credit clients, and whilst this project is still officially within the trialling stage, the results to date have provided the confidence for us to now extend the reach of this service by a factor of four."