The Church of England is considering an appeal from a former Labour minister to buy the loan book of the collapsed payday lender Wonga to prevent its customers from being exploited by debt recovery companies. Frank Field, the independent MP and chairman of the Commons work and pensions committee, has written to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking him to use the church’s £7.8 billion investment fund to buy Wonga’s debt portfolio. On Twitter, Mr Field, who served as minister for welfare reform in Tony Blair’s government, said he was concerned that Wonga’s administrators would sell its loans on to debt recovery businesses at “knockdown rates”. “Money recovery agencies will no doubt attempt to buy these very cheaply and make a lot of money from them,”
Frank Field, the independent MP and chair of the Commons work and pensions committee, has urged the Archbishop of Canterbury to use the £7.8bn ($£7.8 billion) investment fund of the Church of England (CoE) to purchase the debt portfolio of Wonga, the payday loans company that recently went into administration. Field expressed concern that administrators would sell Wonga’s loans cheaply to debt recovery businesses. The CoE, which sold its indirect investments in Wonga some years ago, is considering the request. Field also asked Grant Thornton, which is leading the administration, to consider a church consortium bid for the loan book.