Church leaders in Scotland and England are joining forces to compete with payday loan firms by setting up affordable credit unions.
The Church of Scotland is backing the Church of England after the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, spoke of his desire to put firms like Wonga “out of business”.
The credit union movement is growing and one of the longest established is the Scottish Transport Credit Union (STCU) whose chief executive John Mackin is a delegate to Holyrood’s cross party group on credit unions.
People’s banks are becoming more popular with Scots from all backgrounds.
And the mere mention of payday loans firms makes Mr Mackin bristle with concern.
He believes they lend money irresponsibly without making sufficient checks to ensure borrowers can pay back the money they owe.
Mr Mackin is uncompromising in his criticism of the trail of human misery they leave in their wake.
He said: “The payday loan industry is nothing more than a financial cancer which causes unbelievable trauma. Ideally these companies should be banned if they are not lending in a responsible way.”
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