The number of payday loans issued during the last quarter saw a year-on-year fall of 37%, according to FCA data that was published after an FOI request from Wagestream.
The income streaming app revealed that 807,723 payday loans were taken out in Q3 2019 – a 36.8% drop from the 1,277,938 recorded by the FCA in the same quarter of 2018.
Wagestream also indicated the rate of decline in the volume of loans has become more extreme – with the number of payday loans shrinking annually by 34.1% in Q2 2019, by 31.6% in Q1 and 23.2% in the final quarter of 2018 – after the volume of loans had previously been rising.
Furthermore, the number of lenders offering payday loans fell to just 61 firms in Q3 2019 – reflecting a year-on-year drop of 30.7% – down from the 88 companies who were in the market in the same quarter 12 months earlier.
If lenders continue to leave the market at the same rate, Wagestream said it believes there will no longer be any firms offering payday loans by the end of 2022.
The loans registered for the third quarter of this year represented £230.5m of credit — and extortionate interest rates mean borrowers will still have to pay back £398m, according to the regulator.
Payday lender Piggybank left the market last week, which followed the news in October that QuickQuid had stopped trading having refused to pay compensation for previous loans.
Wagestream CEO and co-founder, Peter Briffett, commented: “Our campaign to kill off payday loans has buried Piggybank, Wonga and QuickQuid, and now we’re getting ready to dance on the grave of the entire industry.
“Consumers are getting wiser to how much misery these loans cause, and more and more lenders are fleeing the market every month as they realise how toxic the industry is.
“New technologies such as income streaming, which gives workers access to their earned income between pay cycles, is now moving to mass-market adoption, with leading brands such as Bupa, Rentokil and the NHS leading the charge.
“Wagestream is winning its battle to destroy the payday loan industry. We are also campaigning to end overdraft fees forever and to get all UK workers £250 in savings.
“We won’t rest until our missions are complete, and judging by these figures, we shouldn’t have to wait long.”
Latest News
NEW BUILD IN FOCUS - NEW EPISODE OF THE MORTGAGE INSIDER PODCAST, OUT NOW
Figures from the National House-Building Council saw Q1 2025 register a 36% increase in new homes built across the UK compared with the same period last year, representing a striking development for the first-time buyer market. But with the higher cost of building, ongoing planning challenges and new and changing regulations, how sustainable is this growth? And what does it mean for brokers?
The role of the bridging market and technology usage in the industry
Content editor, Dan McGrath, sat down with chief operating officer at Black & White Bridging, Damien Druce, and head of development finance at Empire Global Finance, Pete Williams, to explore the role of the bridging sector, the role of AI across the industry and how the property market has fared in the Labour Government’s first year in office.
Does the North-South divide still exist in the UK housing market?
What do the most expensive parts of the country reveal about shifting demand? And why is the Manchester housing market now outperforming many southern counterparts?
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance, to explore how regional trends are redefining the UK housing, mortgage and buy-to-let markets.
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance, to explore how regional trends are redefining the UK housing, mortgage and buy-to-let markets.
The new episode of The Mortgage Insider podcast, out now
Regional housing markets now matter more than ever. While London and the Southeast still tend to dominate the headlines from a house price and affordability perspective, much of the growth in rental yields and buyer demand is coming from other parts of the UK.
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance.
In this episode of the Barclays Mortgage Insider Podcast, host Phil Spencer is joined by Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills, and Ross Jones, founder of Home Financial and Evolve Commercial Finance.
© 2019 Perspective Publishing Privacy & Cookies
Recent Stories