Dollar agreed the payout after failings including lending more money to many of its customers than they could afford to repay
The owner of high street lender The Money Shop has agreed to refund £15.4m to 147,000 customers after an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Dollar Financial UK, which also trades as Paydday UK, Payday Express and Ladder Loans, is reimbursing customers who may have been hit by the way it handled affordability checks and debt collection as well as system errors.
A review set up last year found many customers were lent more than they could afford to repay. It has since agreed to make changes to its lending criteria to meet FCA requirements.

Jonathan Davidson, director of supervision for retail and authorisations at the FCA, said: "The FCA expects all credit providers to carry out proper checks to ensure that borrowers don’t take on more than they can afford to pay back. "We are encouraged that Dollar is committed to putting things right for its customers.” The compensation payouts relate to loans taken out between 1 April 2014 and 30 April 2015 in relation to affordability issues and between 1 January 2013 and 30 April 2015 for collection issues.

The FCA said 65,000 customers would receive a cash refund while 67,000 would see their current loan balance reduced, and 15,000 would see both. It said customers did not need to take any action, with Dollar beginning to contact customers immediately and planning to complete the redress by early next year. Dollar chief executive Stuart Howard said he accepted the findings and apologised to anyone who may have suffered difficulties as a result.

He said: "It is proper that we put things right where they have gone wrong and I have gone further than the review in reforming the way our business operates to reflect the company aim of being the most responsible lender in its market place." Dollar’s latest payout is in addition to an agreement last July to repay £700,000 of interest and default charges to more than 6,000 customers who had received bigger loans than they should have under its own lending criteria.....Read more here