The archbishop of Canterbury has told Wonga that the Church of England wants to “compete” it out of existence as part of its plans to expand credit unions as an alternative to payday lenders.
The Most Rev Justin Welby said he had delivered the message to Errol Damelin, chief executive of Wonga, one of Britain’s best-known payday lenders, during a “very good conversation”.
“I’ve met the head of Wonga and we had a very good conversation and I said to him quite bluntly ‘we’re not in the business of trying to legislate you out of existence, we’re trying to compete you out of existence’,” he told Total Politics magazine.
I’m all for him taking on the likes of Wonga. I stopped supporting Newcastle United the moment they accepted Wonga as their shirt sponsor. I just wonder why the urgency about this, and the apparent lack of urgency about Christian marriage (for instance) or the lack of concern regarding historical Christian orthodoxy in his appointments? Social justice is ultimately one sentence, but it seems way more effort and passion is put into social justice while the foundations are being washed away…
“These things you should have done without neglecting the others…”
I remember credit unions tied to your workplace, almost like another department of the company. You knew them and they knew you. Credit unions today are like banks with definitions of membership so broad that anyone can join.
Of course, that’s an American viewpoint. Payday loans here are mainly used by.people who couldn’t get a CU loan anyway.