The lender signed up to the financial regulator’s responsible practices, so why the large mess?
Choose your villain in the latest drama in the unlovely world of high-cost short-term lending.
Is it Provident Financial, which is adopting aggressive tactics to deal with a flood of complaints from customers of its doorstep lending business? The punters can support a “scheme of arrangement” backed by a £50m pot of the company’s money, which won’t be enough to satisfy claims in full. Or they can say no to the scheme, in which case Provident will put the unit into administration, which is as good as saying “go whistle” for compensation.