Wonga Pay Day Loans Outfit Gets a Slap on the Wrist Instead of Prison

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Apparently 45,000 customers of the Wonga payday loans outfit are going to receive a flat £50 as compensation for being conned by fake threatening legal letters from law firms that did not even exist, which went on to include charges for bogus legal fees that is tantamount to fraud that caused huge distress for tens of thousands of Wonga customers, that instead of now facing the full weight of the law has instead been asked to compensate its victims for approx £2.6 million compared to Wonga's annual profits of £84 million which reeks of an FCA regulator that seems even more inept and toothless than the FSA it replaced.

Compensation of £2.6 million across 45,000 victims comes to a little over an average of £57 each for alleged crimes dating back to 2010. If the regulator was upto the job then they should have at least applied the same 5000%+ APR to the compensation amounts that Wonga charges its customers! Never mind the fact that apparently Wonga has not been fined a single penny!

The bottom line is that Wonga has done the crime so should do the time.

1 - Withdraw their licence to operate as a payday lender.

2 - Launch an police criminal investigation.

I have repeatedly warned ALL borrowers to steer clear of payday lender loan sharks.

The Inflation Mega-Trend Ebook (Jan 2010) (FREE DOWNLOAD) - Page 50

Pay Day Loans - During the great recession many pay day loan outfits have sprung up that offer to fill the gap between each pay cheque with near instant small loans of upto £1000 that borrowers are further enticed to roll over into the next pay day. To be blunt, if you are considering these types of loans then you might as well put a gun to your head for all of the distress they will eventually cause you. Whilst the base rate is at 0.5%, pay day loan outfits are charging over 2,000% APR. These types of loans should be illegal in Britain but they are not, which just illustrates how inept the financial regulator is in allowing ordinary citizens to fall victim to 'legal' loan sharks. If the FSA had the best interests of the general public at heart then it would lobby the government to introduce legislation to CAP ALL interest rates at base rate plus 10%. Yes it would mean that the financially illiterate presently taking on extremely high risk loans would usually be denied loans due to the risk / reward factor, but that is how it should be.

The Pay Day loans industry is just further evidence of Britain's bankster run financial system that has been supported by the regulators that have looked the other way so that their colleagues in the financial sector have fleeced the most vulnerable in society of their meager earnings. The financial entities that deliver Pay Day Loan services charging as much as over 5,000% APR are typically subsidiaries of tax payer bailed out banks that refuse to lend at lower rates thus forcing vulnerable customers into the arms of their Pay Day subsidiaries.

There is a reason why the pay day loans industry has been lightly regulated despite all of the harm they do and that is because those involved with them also happen to be big Tory donors!

Tip of the Ice-berg?

It is highly probable that if Wonga has been busy sending out fake legal letters than so will have most of the other payday lenders, which ultimately means many pay day lenders won't survive investigation, especially if the police get involved if justice is to be served.

By Nadeem Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

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Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free.

Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 1000 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

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