It appears that half of all payday lenders have pulled out of the UK market in the last 18 months, according to news reports. The increased focus by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on the business practices of payday lenders and the prospect of greater regulation is clearly having an effect. The UK's high-cost short-term credit market has been coming under relentless pressure from the media and campaigners to change its ways.Hurrah! A great victory, comrades!
*sotto voce* …but what about the people who need a…*sotto voce*
Silence! No dissent is allowed! Let them use credit unions!
While the number of payday loan providers may be declining, credit unions and community development finance institutions (CDFIs) are slowly scaling up and offering a wider range of services, such as short-term loans, at affordable prices. Barclays has announced a £1m fund for credit unions, along with a range of other measures, including helping with access to premises. Lloyds Banking Group has revealed that it will invest £1m a year in credit unions and has piloted a project in Leeds signposting appropriate customers to the Leeds City Credit Union and local money management charities.See! There’s an alternative! A glorious socialist alternative!
But wait! The usual socialist stumbling block is hit. There’s a shortage!
But the geographic reach of credit unions and CDFIs is still patchy, and many of their potential customers are not aware of their existence. Community projects such as Big Local and Community First are helping to tackle this, but it is an uphill battle.Let me guess? More of other people’s money would help?
The £38m invested in credit unions is almost the same amount as the top five payday lenders spent on advertising in 2013 (an estimated £36.3m). The financial services market is still distorted, with poorer communities offered a wealth of choice of high-cost credit providers but no choice of other types of financial services… … we need to see a massive scaling up of credit unions and CDFIs as well as encourage the main high street and new challenger banks to serve poorer communities…OK. Fine. Sink your own money into it, then.
I think you should have skipped this story julia!, your twist and slant is all cock eyed.
ReplyDeletePayday loans....needs sorting out , the government are doing just that, the FCA is wading in and the banks too.
there is no "left, comrades, socialist" claptrap to be found in the story, except Labour and the tories both agree Wonga is wronga, hey even UKIP too.
What about the staffy bull terrior running amok in clacton poundland biting a pensioner and its pregnant teen mother moaning that her 4 bedroom council house isn't big enough to keep her 6 children and 4 dogs?....lol, only joking,stick with the doggy stories love.
".......we need to ....... encourage the main high street and new challenger banks to serve ........... "
ReplyDeleteWeren't 'the Left' the most vociferous critics of the banking industry, when it last encouraged those in need to borrow heavily?
I've said it before and I'll say it again til I'm blue in the face the Tories are missing a big trick. They should institute a voluntary tax system that runs parallel to the existing one. Exactly the same, but with far higher rates. 30% basic, 50% middle, 70% higher rate. Plus swingeing rates on CGT/IHT etc. Participation would be voluntary, and would last as long as the Parliament lasted, ie once you joined you couldn't leave until the next election.
ReplyDeleteThen every time some Lefty type demands more money for their pet project the Tory spokesman could say (a) are you personally in the Socialist Tax System (as I would officially call it) and (b) there isn't any money being producing by it because no-one wants to pay those rates. Collapse of stout lefty party, because none of them would join, because there's one thing I have learned about the Left - they are very free with other peoples money, but when its their own they're as tight as hell.
Nicely put, Jim.
ReplyDelete@Jim,
ReplyDeleteand they give you a wristband to wear if you're a voluntary rate taxpayer, to mark you out as being holy and show how much you care. I'm all for it, and don't like wristbands.
I made the mistake of looking at the article, and the visage of Tankard turned the urine in my bladder to solid nitrogen. Another of these 'something must be done' witches!
The CDF, of which she's a director, has the following helpful prose on its webshite: "We are passionate about empowering communities where local people are at the centre of change."
I guess that means that they all work for free.
Or perhaps not. The accounts from 2011 show that the chief executive went from 78270 + 8447 pension to 89452 + 11181 between 2010 and 2011. There's yet more: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-development-foundation-annual-report-and-accounts-2010-to-2011
Reading that returned my urine to body temperature.
"Payday loans....needs sorting out , the government are doing just that.."
ReplyDeleteYes, Rickie, the government has a great track record at achieving success..
...
...what?
"Weren't 'the Left' the most vociferous critics of the banking industry..."
That was then! This is now!
Who can keep up any more?
"Then every time some Lefty type demands more money for their pet project the Tory spokesman could say (a) are you personally in the Socialist Tax System..."
I LOVE that idea!