POS consumer car finance grew 13% year-on-year in February, reaching £2.3bn in value, figures from the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) have shown.

Volumes of business also grew to just under 173,800 cars financed, up 7% year-on-year.

Used car business recorded a particularly strong increase, reaching £1.4bn in value, up 15% year-on-year. Volumes grew 11% to 123,000 vehicles.

The new car segment also grew to £923m, up 9%. Volumes for the segment were more sluggish, and recorded a 2% decrease to 50,700 vehicles.

Geraldine Kilkelly, head of research and chief economist at the FLA, said: “The POS consumer car finance market reported steady single-digit growth in February.  Demand from consumers for new car finance continued to reflect trends in private new car sales.

“POS consumer car finance new business volumes overall in the twelve months to February were 1% higher than in the same period in 2017 at 2.4 million.”