Summary:
The payday loan industry has been dealt a blow after a shocking undercover investigation revealed how vulnerable borrowers were being exploited.

Full article:
A huge payday loan company whose shameful tactics were exposed by a Mail on Sunday investigation has been forced out of the market by regulators. The Cheque Centre has been ordered by the Financial Conduct Authority to stop offering short-term loans that have to be repaid in a lump sum. In March an MoS reporter worked in one of the company’s 496 branches, where he secretly filmed staff preying on vulnerable customers and locking them into spiralling debt with loans at interest rates of up to 3,000 per cent. Staff at Cheque Centre were found preying on vulnerable people and locking them into high interest loans . Predatory salesmen cold-called previous borrowers and one manager boasted that he often signed up customers who smelled strongly of alcohol. FCA chief executive Martin Wheatley warned that other operators should take note. ‘This is an early victory for people that use payday lenders. I have said before that firms would need to dramatically improve their operation or exit the market, and we are now seeing that happening.’ The Cheque Centre, which  had a turnover last year of £374 million, will be banned until it can prove that it treats its customers fairly and in accordance with regulations. Martin Wheatley, head of the FCA, hailed the move as an 'early victory for people who use payday lenders'