Andrew Barry Hart, director of Wage Payment and Payday Loans (WPPL), which also traded as Payday Overdraft, Wage Payday and Doshloans, has been banned from performing any role in financial services.
Customers were often treated unfairly and frequently misled by the lender, said the FCA.
Customer complaints were commonly disregarded, and excessive sums were taken out of some customers’ bank accounts. In some cases these practices caused financial loss to customers, many of whom were already in financial difficulties.
Hart was the sole director, controller and ultimate owner of WPPL and was not an approved person as his permissions pre-dated FCA regulation of those previously regulated by consumer credit regulation.
Hart and WPPL are disputing the FCA’s decisions and the case has been referred to the Upper Tribunal.
Meanwhile, the FCA said Hart ‘recklessly contributed to and failed to address unfair business practices carried on by WPPL’. It said he failed to take reasonable steps to implement appropriate policies and procedures relating to creditworthiness, affordability and forbearance.
He also failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that WPPL had appropriate systems in place to communicate with customers, to ensure that customer complaints were dealt with adequately, to provide proper oversight of WPPL’s staff and to ensure that WPPL’s loan agreements complied with regulatory requirements.
