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Church of England ready ‘to compete’ Wonga out of business

Tahmina Mannan
Written By:
Tahmina Mannan
Posted:
Updated:
25/07/2013

The Church of England plans to force payday lender, Wonga, out of business, by competing against it.

In an interview with Total Politics, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said that the Church is ‘putting our money where our mouth is’ in developing an alternative to payday money-lenders in the form of credit unions.

The plan, he said, is to create “credit unions that are both engaged in their communities and are much more professional – and people have got to know about them.”

Welby said: “I’ve met the head of Wonga and I’ve 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’s a businessman; he took that well.”

Earlier this month, Welby launched a new credit union aimed at clergy and church staff.

Credit unions charge their members low rates of interest to borrow money.