FirstPlus, part of Barclays, has decided to stop new lending as of August 9th.
Barclays cited "slowing demand" as the determining factor in its decision to close the subsidiary loans business fronted by Carol Vorderman, which was a market leader in secured loans.
FirstPlus was acquired by Barclays after taking over its parent company, Woolwich, in 2000.
The bank, which is Britain's fourth largest, tried to find a buyer for FirstPlus last year but Barclays' head of global retail business Frits Seegers failed to find a buyer willing to match the value of its loan book.
Firstplus managing director Neil Radley said: "In the past year we have tried a whole range of activities to develop our business but the market demand simply isn't strong enough."
The announcement by Barclays caused price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com to lose around a third of their value yesterday evening, with FirstPlus accounting for up to 80 per cent of customers handled by the website.
