PROVIDENT Financial has reported pre-tax profits of more than £90million despite having to pay out £4 million as part of a proposed 225-person redundancy move.

The credit card company, who employ more than 700 people at their Godwin Street base in Bradford, has announced a pre-tax profit of £90.1m for the first half of this year, as part of its interim results.

This figure also showed a two to three per cent increase in the firm's own market expectations for this period.

The proposed 225 redundancies are of branch-based administration staff at their sites throughout the country. This is due to the firm's continued roll-out of mobile technology and their move towards paperless processing.

The firm's Consumer Credit Division (CCD) saw the company take a £4m hit earlier this year after announcing the redundancies. They claim this move would give them savings in a full year of £4million. The 90-day consultation period for these redundancies is due to close next month.

Despite this one-off payout, CCD's pre-tax profit increased by 2.5 per cent to £37m.

The interim dividend per share was up by 10 per cent to 34.1p for this year, from 31p last year. The basic earnings per share for the first half of this year increased by 24.6 per cent to 54.2p, from 43.5p last year.

The group has 2.5 million customers overall and its operations feature Vanquis Bank and the CCD.

Meanwhile, Vanquis Bank's UK pre-tax profit rose by 36.1 per cent to £68.3 million from £50.2m last year.

The start-up loss of their Polish pilot operation was £4.6m, which the firm says still shows "encouraging momentum".

The figures for the interim results cover the six months up to June 30 this year.

Provident also plan to expand Satsuma Loans, a service which offers cash loans between £100 and £300 paid back over 13 or 26 weeks, over the next few months.

This section of the business is also based at Godwin Street and firm chiefs hope to bring more jobs to the city.

Peter Crook, Provident Financial chief executive, said: "It's a really pleasing set of results.

"Satsuma business is making really good progress in Bradford. We are looking to scale up this business in 2015.

"It will bring more jobs to Bradford in due course. We are the largest employer in Bradford city centre.

"Credit cards are an important tool for people. The underlining demand for credit cards is very strong. We are willing to give people a chance who have been turned down for a credit card by their bank.

"We have a really nice portfolio of businesses.

"There are new things going on for us. We are a leaner, cleaner business. There is a good rate of growth and profits for us.

"I'm very positive of the outlook and we are in great shape. The outlook looks bright for us."