Cork home to most legal money lenders

CORK city has the highest percentage of moneylenders per head of population.

There are six registered money lenders operating in the city council area, according to CSO figures obtained by the Labour Party.

With a population of 119,143, it means that there is one money lender for every 19,857 people in Cork.

That’s more than the figure for each of Dublin’s four council areas and almost four times the average 40,000 figure for the greater Dublin area.

According to the figures, there are no registered money lenders operating in Cork, Kerry, or Limerick county council areas though there is one operating in Limerick city where the population is given as 52,560.

Labour’s Cork South Central Dáil candidate, Cllr Ciarán Lynch, released the figures yesterday and said the stats on Cork were extremely worrying.

“The high figures adds to an even more worrying concern that there may also be a very high number of illegal and unregistered money lenders also operating in the city,” he said.

People in tight financial situations can be tempted to avail of easy credit offered by unlicensed money lenders, he said. “People are now borrowing for everyday expenses. But this can pull people into a vicious cycle of borrowing to repay existing loans and forcing them into a poverty trap.

“The need to provide affordable sources of credit for low income families and to protect them from excessive interest rates charged by licensed and unlicensed money lenders has been patently obvious for some time, yet regrettably no action has been taken by the present Government on this matter.”

He called for the introduction of a cap on the level of interest that money lenders can charge and for some form of consumer protection to be introduced.

Last year, the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) joined forces with the Cork Chapter of Credit Unions and the Government’s Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) and launched a major campaign on the hidden costs of so-called door-step credit.

A typical doorstep loan of €500 is repaid over a 26-week period at a rate of 25% per week.

The total amount repaid is €650 — a cost of €150 to the person taking out the loan. The same loan from a credit union would cost just €12.46, creating a massive saving of €137.54.

Cork MABS

12 Penrose Wharf

Penrose Quay

021-4552080

Email: [e-mail].

* www.mabs.ie