The Archbishop Justin Welby is back in the news today after it emerged that he met with Errol Damelin, the chief executive of payday lender Wonga.com, to tell him he wants to put the company out of business.
Labour-run Plymouth council has sought measures to stop payday lending companies such as Wonga and The Money Shop from advertising on its billboards and bus stops – a move that will sit alongside agreements reached with city commercial partners to block adverts on the council’s computer network, including in libraries.
Payday lending has historically been referred to as fringe banking in the United States, but you couldn’t deny it’s anything other than big business today.
On twitter yesterday Ivan White wrote: “Softening us up for NHS charges – first make foreigners pay, then maybe rich pensioners, the obese and smokers….everyone in due course.” Scary to think that this might be the way things are edging.test
Payday lenders have been called to a summit today to discuss the future of the industry, new regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority, and what should be done to make payday lending less exploitative.
We’ve a gaffe-prone chancellor in George Osborne: before it was the 4×4 in the disabled parking space, then it was the fine for not having a first class ticket. Now he’s caught out by The Sun for eating a “posh burger”.
In the wake of changes announced by chancellor George Osborne last week on the amount at which a credit union can charge in interest for one of its loan products, Joseph Wright of Civitas has written a paper entitled Credit Unions: A Solution to Poor Bank Lending? exploring the industry and its rates.
The payday lending industry punishes people for its own faults: they don’t carry out the correct credit checks then continue to charge borrowers excessive fees and interest on loans they probably couldn’t afford to begin with.
The charity StepChange have recently reported that twice as many people who sought their help with debts in 2012 had payday loans out compared with 2011. Reports like this remind us that change is needed to the way payday lenders are allowed to operate in the UK.
Despite the fact that Carla del Ponte, a former prosecutor for U.N. tribunals investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, has talked only of “suspicions” regarding the Syrian opposition’s possible use of chemical weapons, her comments have gained a lot of attention over the weekend.
