Costs up, revenues flat, profits collapsing.
In most firms that would be a recipe for disaster with calls for the chief executive to go and serious questions being asked about the business. But for Wonga, the numbers released today actually contain within them the first glimmers of hope. The new chairman, Andy Haste, has been in place since June. He has already said that in the future Wonga will be a smaller business with lower profits and slower, sustainable growth. He wants to make Wonga a respectable financial services firm, properly regulated and with tighter lending criteria. Its role? A competitor to banks which impose high charges for unauthorised overdrafts. In effect, Mr Haste has admitted that the company had been growing too fast and had been successful in part by resorting to unsustainable business practices. One of those - sending out fake legal letters to people who had not repaid loans on time - led to a finding from the Financial Conduct Authority of "serious misconduct" in the summer. Wonga was ordered to compensate 45,000 customers, costing £2.6m.....Read more here