Payday loans campaign victories
Today the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published their plans for regulating the consumer credit market, including payday loans.
Citizens Advice has been calling for
- tighter affordability checks
- limits on loan rollovers
- limiting the use of Continuous Payment Authorities
- borrowers being signposted to free debt advice
- controls on advertising
And they are all included in the proposals! This is great news for payday loan customers as we’ve seen how the appalling behaviour of some lenders has driven people deep into debt. The new rules will be essential to stem the tide of predatory payday lenders and protect consumers. You can read our response to the announcement on our website.
There is still lots of work to do though. The FCA will consult on these plans until 3 December and will come under intense pressure from the industry to relax their rules. Over the next few days we will be looking at the proposals in more detail and we’ll put together key messages for bureaux, to help you respond.
Also today, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) published a report reviewing the progress of the payday lenders customer charter which includes stats from our own tracker survey. BIS has also published a research report on payday loan advertising. The research looks at perceptions and uses of payday lending, people’s views on payday loan advertising, and tests the impact when different warnings are added to adverts. You can read the report here.
If you are interested in getting involved in policy and campaigning work visit our social policy section of the site.