vanquis banking group plc on friday reported a rise in 2022 pretax profit as it saw strong loan book growth across its businesses and said it has seen positive momentum from the fourth quarter continue into 2023 the uk consumerfinance companyformerly provident financialposted a pretax profit of 994 million pounds 1231 million for the year ended dec 31 compared with gbp41 million for the previous year on an adjusted basis pretax profit from continuing operations was gbp1266 million down from gbp1678 million it said noting that better divisional profits were offset by increased losses from its nascent personal loans business and higher costs from the centralization of the groups functions vanquis proposed a final dividend of 103 pence a share bringing the total payout for the year to 153 pence the londonlisted company said net interest margin increased to 210 over the year from 205 in 2021 the group ended the period with a fully loaded cet1 ratioa measure of financial strengthof 264 compared with 291 in 2021 vanquis sees a stable net interest margin this year and targets a cet1 ratio of around 20 over time for 2023 it aims to accelerate receivables growth and sees a similar level of business investment as it did the previous year it expects costs to be broadly flat on year