- Joined
- Oct 28, 2007
- Messages
- 23,969
- Reaction score
- 16,632
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Independent
The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned the online lender Wonga that the Church of England plans to force it out of business - by competing against it.
--snip--
Archbishop Welby, a former financier who sits on the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, has previously lobbied for a cap on high interest rates charged by loan companies.
--snip--
"I've met the head of Wonga, and we had a very good conversation," the archbishop told Total Politics magazine.
"I said to him quite bluntly that 'we're not in the business of trying to legislate you out of existence; we're trying to compete you out of existence'." link.
About time too, nice to see the Church of England become aggressive against companies like Wonga etc
Local credit unions used to be popular and community friendly ways to make sure poor people could get low cost loans but they have largely faded into the background from their earlier position in the community.
I suppose it pays to have an ex-business executive, as the new religious chief :lol:
Paul
About time too, nice to see the Church of England become aggressive against companies like Wonga etc
Local credit unions used to be popular and community friendly ways to make sure poor people could get low cost loans but they have largely faded into the background from their earlier position in the community.
Wonga is basically legal loan-shark business. It offers high cost short term loans, no questions asked. You can literally get 1000pounds with almost 50% interest in a day online.
That is loan-sharking at its finest, only now it's legal. Even banks, who are another breed of loan-sharks, are legislated to require some verifications and documents before they lend you any money.
So it's good that at least someone is going to fight them, if the govt won't.
I certainly hope that the Church of England is also going to give up their status as a charitable entity and all the tax advantages that status holds. If you want to get into business and compete with other businesses, be prepared to have all you operations subject to tax laws that exist and the regulatory regimen as well.
That's an interesting point, and one which I'm sure they've given some thought. A seperate branch perhaps?
Paul
I certainly hope that the Church of England is also going to give up their status as a charitable entity and all the tax advantages that status holds. If you want to get into business and compete with other businesses, be prepared to have all you operations subject to tax laws that exist and the regulatory regimen as well.
Wonga is basically legal loan-shark business. It offers high cost short term loans, no questions asked. You can literally get 1000pounds with almost 50% interest in a day online.
That is loan-sharking at its finest, only now it's legal. Even banks, who are another breed of loan-sharks, are legislated to require some verifications and documents before they lend you any money.
So it's good that at least someone is going to fight them, if the govt won't.
I certainly hope that the Church of England is also going to give up their status as a charitable entity and all the tax advantages that status holds. If you want to get into business and compete with other businesses, be prepared to have all you operations subject to tax laws that exist and the regulatory regimen as well.
I'm not sure that the Church of England is specifically going to open offices and charge interest under the name of its own credit union - one of the things I read was that the church would offer premises and support for existing credit unions.
Unfortunately the news of the OP has become blurred by the revelation that the CofE is unknowingly a financial investor in the very company it has specifically set out to challenge.
Wonga, which offers loans of up to £1,000 arranged over periods of up to 45 days, previously quoted a typical annual percentage rate (APR) of 4,214%.
The embarrassing part is today's revelation that the Church of England has some pension fund investments which own a bit of Wonga. The Archbish is ticked off to the Nth degree.
What happened to the football player (soccer for most of us here) who refused to wear his team's uniform because they were sponsored by Wonga? I think he is a Muslim and he claimed it was a violation of his religious principles.
Thanks. I know there were other muslims on the team who weren't boycotting. Still, I suspect most of us, if given a choice as to who's name we wanted to wear across our chest, would not choose a loan shark company.
You might not like banks or lending institutions much, but they're hardly in the class of payday loan sharks.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?