Paragon Car Finance made £162.4m (2001 = £138.5m) in advances in the year to 30 September 2002 – a rise of 17.3 per cent. The value of the loan book rose 28.7 per cent from £188.7m to £242.8m.

“Development of the distribution channel remains a focus, by increasing the number of authorised dealers in our distribution network and by further developing our relationships with large car dealers and major account connections,” says a company spokesman.

PCF also intends to introduce EDI technolgy for its major dealer partners with the aim of speeding up response times and creating administrative efficiencies.