StepChange Debt Charity response to announcement on payday lenders agreement on real-time data sharing

15th January, 2014

In response to the announcement that certain payday lenders had agreed to sharing data in real-time, StepChange Debt Charity head of policy Peter Tutton said:

“StepChange Debt Charity welcomes this move by some of the major payday lenders to share data in real-time. We strongly urge all the other payday lenders to do the same.

We continue to see people struggling with unaffordable and multiple payday loans and believe real time data sharing is an absolutely necessary part of the solution. Lenders now need to use real time data to ensure that payday lending does not push people further into serious debt.

We urge the Financial Conduct Authority to ensure that payday lenders share real time data if they do not join in voluntarily and use this data to lend responsibly."