Banks in Europe, including the UK, are far more important to the provision of credit than is the case in the US. Roughly, European banks provide 80% of our credit needs, compared with 20% in the US - where securitisation that allows investors to lend is massively more significant.

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"Customer satisfaction is extremely important to us and all of our products are designed to provide convenient, transparent and flexible credit that reflects our customers' needs, " a statement said.

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As I mentioned the other day, they provide about four-fifths of our financing needs.

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