Borrowers with patchy credit histories might struggle to secure a loan from a mainstream lender, but investors wanting to get access to this part of the financial services market are spoilt for choice.
This is all the clearer after the collapse of the attempted hostile takeover of Provident Financial by Non-Standard Finance, a bitterly contested war of attrition whose fate was ultimately determined this week by regulators rather than shareholders.
But as the hostilities fade away, and both sides return to their day-to-day business of traipsing up to the doorsteps of some of Britain’s poorer householders, how might investors respond now?
As an aside, it has to be said that the phrase “sub-prime” that is used to describe what Provident Financial and Non-Standard Finance do