Payday loan investors attacked

13 january 2013

 

Some of the top global venture capital firms will be the focus of a campaign against the payday loan industry.

Stella Creasy, a Labour MP, is targeting investors in Britain’s biggest providers of short-term credit, including Provident Financial and Wonga, in an attempt to spur reform in the sector.

She will seek meetings with shareholders and ask them to “resist the temptation to put more capital into these businesses” until they cut the interest rates on their loans.

Greylock Partners and Accel Partners, US venture capital funds, will be approached by the MP after pouring cash into Wonga. Other shareholders in the lender include the Wellcome Trust, one of Britain’s biggest charities.

Creasy said: “Whoever is investing in these companies is making money from a market that is detrimental to British consumers.