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73-861: The Student Loans Company ( SLC ) is an executive non-departmental public body company in the United Kingdom that provides student loans . It is owned by the UK Government 's Department for Education (85%), the Scottish Government (5%), the Welsh Government (5%) and the Northern Ireland Executive (5%). The SLC is funded entirely by the UK taxpayer. It is responsible for both providing loans to students, and collecting loan repayments alongside HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The SLC's head office

146-499: A Business, Innovation and Skills select committee hearing on pay day lenders, Wonga said that they had not been censured by the OFT, but had been asked to make various changes, and that criticism by the OFT was "an open issue"; the company could not say more on an ongoing process. The practice of allowing debtors to "roll on" an existing loan was also called into question by the MPs. Regulation for

219-482: A loan shark in Manchester was jailed for illegal money lending and other offences despite claiming that his rates were lower than Wonga. His lawyer said: "Within his community there are large numbers of people who because of their debt history are very limited in terms of the places they can go, other than companies such as Wonga." In October 2014, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned Wonga from using

292-674: A non-ministerial government department being at a remove from both ministers and any elected assembly or parliament. Typically an NDPB would be established under statute and be accountable to Parliament rather than to His Majesty's Government . This arrangement allows more financial independence since the government is obliged to provide funding to meet statutory obligations. NDPBs are sometimes referred to as quangos . However, this term originally referred to quasi-NGOs bodies that are, at least ostensibly, non-government organisations , but nonetheless perform governmental functions. The backronym "quasi-autonomous national government organization"

365-494: A "Wonga economy" and "a quiet crisis of thousands of families trapped in unpayable debt." He also called for Wonga's cartoon-type ads aired during children's programmes to be banned, and promised to introduce legislation to that effect. He accused Wonga and other payday lenders of 'targeting children'. In 2018, once the company had gone into administration, chairman of the Commons Work and Pensions Committee Frank Field wrote to

438-639: A "good conversation" with Errol Damelin and told him that he wanted to see competition, not legislation, put Wonga out of business. According to the BBC the church would help credit unions by providing premises and expertise. However Welby was reported to be furious when the Financial Times pointed out that, despite denying involvement in payday lending, the Church Pension fund invested in venture capitalists Accel Partners which raised funds for Wonga in 2009. In

511-531: A November 2013 interview for ITV , Niall Wass defended the firm's practices and challenged critics to "go use the service, see if you think it is fair and transparent, take out £30 for ten days, pay it back after a week, look at the price, tell me if that is fair and transparent." By July 2014, The Church of England had severed its ties with the payday lender. An all-party Early Day Motion tabled in November 2011 highlighted Wonga's "high APR" and sought to restrict

584-409: A TV advert that it said breached its code because of a claim that customers would save money. The authority said this was likely to be interpreted as a statement that Wonga's loans were cheaper than those of other lenders and was therefore a price comparison. It ruled that Wonga should consequently have informed consumers of its 5,853% annual interest rate. The ruling was in response to a complaint from

657-556: A consortium, Erudio Student Loans , in 2013 for £160m. In 2014, the government indicated that under the Sale of Student Loans Act 2008 , it would start selling the SLC's £12bn book of 1998 - 2012 ICR loans to improve the UK public finances. The first ICR debt sale was completed in December 2017 with English loans which entered repayment between 2002 and 2006 (inclusive). The debt sale was completed with

730-414: A data breach which affected around 245,000 of its customers in the UK. The range of information stolen in the breach included details on customers' bank cards – information used by some banks as part of the login process for online accounts. On 4 August 2018, the company received an emergency £10m cash injection from shareholders after its chief executive warned it was in danger of becoming insolvent due to

803-448: A factor in their plan that banks were uncertain with. A beta website was eventually finalised and launched in 2007, and within five minutes, Wonga was processing its first loan application; within a week, the firm faced its first loan default. The subsequent months of operation showed increased demand, but traditional methods of credit risk assessment proved inadequate, leading the company to experience default rates of around 50%. During

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876-400: A fifth category: NHS bodies . These bodies consist of boards which advise ministers on particular policy areas. They are often supported by a small secretariat from the parent department, and any expenditure is paid for by that department. These bodies usually deliver a particular public service and are overseen by a board rather than ministers. Appointments are made by ministers following

949-450: A good credit record. Some commentators, however, warned that taking a loan from a payday lender could damage the customer's credit record and their ability to obtain a mortgage, even where the loan was repaid years prior. Ray Boulger of John Charcol , for instance, told BBC Newsnight that "Our experience is that mortgage lenders will often turn down requests for people who have had a payday loan...", and Robert Sinclair, Chief Executive of

1022-599: A loan of £100 over seventeen days (Wonga's average loan term) required £113.60 to repay. The company was criticised heavily by politicians, including former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband as a leading example of predatory lending . The firm's debt collection practices were also scrutinised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), who found the firm had lent money to many who would never be able to repay and Wonga agreed to compensate 45,000 customers for unfair and misleading debt collection practices. By 2015,

1095-449: A maximum of three instances in accordance with the Finance and Leasing Association lending code. On 28 November 2012, following concerns that small loans, intended to be short-term, could become prohibitively expensive, the government announced it would give the Financial Conduct Authority powers to prevent indefinite rolling over of loans and effectively limit charges. In August 2018,

1168-514: A practising Muslim despite "pictures ... of him gambling in a casino". The sponsorship was not renewed after the 2016–17 season. In 2012, Wonga.com sponsored ITV's Red or Black? , which was widely criticised. The Guardian reported, in November 2012, that a computer in the Wonga offices appeared to have been used to remove from the company's Misplaced Pages page a reference to controversy over its sponsorship of Newcastle United Football Club and to delete

1241-432: A problem when seeking out funding, as many potential investors they approached perceived the short-term, small-loans business as an unprofitable, risky backwater. After being denied funding by UK banks, Wonga secured venture capital through Balderton Capital . The company's first year was spent on software development for a beta website. The business model of lending only to those who could pay back reliably, as opposed to

1314-419: A profit of £12.4m in 2010. Wonga claimed that its customers were "tech-savvy young professionals who previously used the banks to borrow money". It accepted that its APR was "not cheap" but claimed that its typical customer was someone on a mid-level salary temporarily short of cash because of an unexpected bill, for example to buy a new central heating boiler or tickets to a music festival. Dr Gathergood of

1387-498: A proud day for Wonga and I'd like to apologise". As the misconduct happened before the FCA took over the regulation of payday lenders, it is unable to fine Wonga. It also said there would be no criminal investigation as it wanted to set up a compensation scheme (of about £2.6 million) as quickly as possible and a criminal probe would take time. However, the issue was later passed onto the police for potential criminal investigation. The head of

1460-486: A surge in customer compensation claims. On 26 August, Grant Thornton were lined up to act as administrators in the event Wonga became insolvent, pending a decision to be made within weeks, and assumed these responsibilities the day after the firm went into administration on 30 August. Grant Thornton focused on conducting a wind-down of the business that would involve the sale of assets and identifying creditors, along with handling claims for compensation. By March 2019,

1533-490: Is common practice for international groups to consolidate their IP holdings in a location where the substantial activity relating to the IP is performed." Richard Murphy from Tax Research UK commented that "the transfer of key business processes – especially those that are technology based and that can be protected by patents and copyrights – is a classic way in which companies try to move their profits between countries." In May 2012,

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1606-662: Is in Glasgow , with other offices in Darlington and Llandudno . Peter Lauener has been the organisation's non-executive chair since April 2020. Chris Larmer was appointed CEO in October 2022, prior to this he was the Executive Director of Operations. The SLC was established in 1989 to provide loans and grants to students studying in the UK. From 1990 to 1998 these were mortgage -style loans, which were aimed at helping students with

1679-728: Is mandatory, it is a poor comparison measure for short-term loans. The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee heard evidence from consumer money expert Martin Lewis that the total cost of a payday loan was more useful than APR. Lewis calculated in his blog that at a compounding interest rate of 4,212%, a £100 loan that is not repaid would in seven years amount to more than the USA's entire national debt, however, he explained that his calculation "bears little resemblance to reality", because Wonga does not charge compound interest. He also explained that he had performed this calculation purely to raise awareness of

1752-505: Is used in this usage which is normally pejorative. In March 2009 there were nearly 800 public bodies that were sponsored by the UK Government. This total included 198 executive NDPBs, 410 advisory bodies, 33 tribunals, 21 public corporations, the Bank of England , 2 public broadcasting authorities and 23 NHS bodies. However, the classification is conservative and does not include bodies that are

1825-729: The British Virgin Islands , while Jonty Hurwitz owns 12.6m shares (around 5.5%) through a BVI company. Damelin resigned as Chief Executive in November 2013 to become part-time chairman and non-executive director. He resigned entirely as a Director in June 2014. Hurwitz resigned from the company in November 2011 and left the board of Wonga in November 2013. By 2011, Wonga had refined its business model to such an extent that it started to make significant profits and in September 2012 it reported profits of £45.8m for 2011 from revenue of £185m, up from

1898-624: The Conservatives' complacency in power in the 1990s, presented much material interpreted as evidence of questionable government practices. This concern led to the formation of a Committee on Standards in Public Life (the Nolan Committee) which first reported in 1995 and recommended the creation of a "public appointments commissioner" to make sure that appropriate standards were met in the appointment of members of NDPBs. The Government accepted

1971-492: The Law Society , Desmond Hudson, said that Wonga's activity, which he qualified as dishonest, could amount to blackmail , deception , and other breaches of the law. The City of London Police began reassessing the case for an investigation, but announced the following year that after a thorough review of all the material gathered, that there was insufficient evidence to progress an investigation. Consequent to discussions with

2044-545: The London Assembly said that it was 'shameful' that the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, had allowed such sponsorship at a time of year when people are most vulnerable financially. Media Week noted that the deal was "highly criticised" and that Transport for London later banned payday loan companies from sponsoring their services. In August 2012 the company launched OpenWonga, an online "digital platform that aims to 'inform

2117-510: The University of Nottingham described payday loan users as falling into two groups, those who have had a financial shock but can repay the money and those who were unable to control their expenditure, though he said lenders preferentially associated their clients with the first group. The committee also looked at credit unions . Mark Lyonette of Association of British Credit Unions said that although credit unions now provided 90 million loans in

2190-485: The Wellcome Trust . By the end of 2011, Wonga's technology could reliably reject two-thirds of applications and predict the ability of a customer to repay a loan by an accuracy of around 93%. In May 2012, the firm expanded into South Africa, offering consumer loans, and began testing their technology in November that year for a possible expansion into Canada. On 30 September 2014, Wonga announced that its profits for

2263-550: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in a letter urging the Archbishop to lead a consortium with Wonga's administrators and for the Church of England to purchase the company's loans, preventing the company from selling its loans on to debt recovery businesses at "knockdown rates". The firm claimed its loans were often cheaper than unauthorised bank charges and although APR disclosure

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2336-558: The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, said "From a consumer perspective, anybody who takes out a payday loan is clearly showing some financial distress and existing lenders will think these consumers may be maxed out." Wonga stated that if the money was not available on the day a customer has nominated to pay it back, a £30 fee would be charged and interest would accrue for a maximum of 60 days and that it did not allow automatic "rolling over" of loans, limiting to specific requests and to

2409-622: The Code of Practice of the Commissioner for Public Appointments . They employ their own staff and allocate their own budgets. These bodies have jurisdiction over an area of the law . They are coordinated by His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service , an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice , and supervised by the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council , itself an NDPB sponsored by

2482-586: The FCA, on 2 October 2014 Wonga agreed to write off the debts – thought to total £220m – of 330,000 customers who were in arrears of thirty days or more. In May 2012, Justin Welby (then the Bishop of Durham ) called Wonga.com's high interest rates "shocking" and " usurious ". Wonga declined to comment. By July 2013, Welby was Archbishop of Canterbury and had been a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards. He announced that he had had

2555-401: The FCA. He added: "The FCA expects firms to pay particular attention to fair treatment of those who have difficulty in meeting their loan repayments". Richard Lloyd of Which? described the findings as "a shocking new low for the payday industry that is already dogged by bad practice and Wonga deserves to have the book thrown at it." Wonga UK managing director, Tessa Cook, said: "Today is not

2628-456: The German payments business, BillPay , between 2013 and 2017. The company was responsible for inventing fully automated risk processing technology to provide short-term, unsecured personal loans online, including via tablet and mobile app . However, it also drew wide criticism for the interest it charged, equated to an annual percentage rate (APR) of 1,509%; an example of this was that

2701-551: The Ministry of Justice. These bodies were formerly known as "boards of visitors" and are responsible for the state of prisons, their administration, and the treatment of prisoners. The Home Office is responsible for their costs and has to note all expenses. NDPB differ from executive agencies as they are not created to carry out ministerial orders or policy, instead they are more or less self-determining and enjoy greater independence. They are also not directly part of government like

2774-586: The UK's Conservative-Liberal coalition published a review of NDPBs recommending closure or merger of nearly two hundred bodies, and the transfer of others to the private sector. This process was colloquially termed the "bonfire of the quangos". NDPBs are classified under code S.13112 of the European System of Accounts (ESA.95). However, Statistics UK does not break out the detail for these bodies and they are consolidated into General Government (S.1311). Wonga.com Wonga.com , also known as Wonga ,

2847-468: The UK. According to the Cabinet Office their total expenditure for the financial year 2005–06 was £167 billion. As of March 2020, there were 237 non-departmental public bodies. Critics argued that the system was open to abuse as most NDPBs had their members directly appointed by government ministers without an election or consultation with the people. The press , critical of what was perceived as

2920-521: The United States, they were not able to match the "sophisticated automation and credit scoring behind the scenes" of the "high-tech, payday-lending Wonga model", though he welcomed the possibility of using post offices as a vehicle to expand the Credit Union market in the UK. Wonga said that most applicants were not credit-worthy enough to obtain a loan from the firm, but that it only lent to those with

2993-467: The administrators informed the Treasury Select Committee that the number of claims had increased fourfold - increasing from around 10,500 to over 40,000 - since the firm's collapse, but that the lack of assets and the sheer volume meant that many claimants — denoted as unsecured creditors — were likely to receive much less than they were entitled to. By January 2020, the number of claimants

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3066-515: The black credit market. The Times said capping will further limit the availability of credit to people from regulated entities. On 20 November 2012, Creasy demanded an apology from the company after The Guardian reported that abusive tweets were sent to her by Wonga employees. Further investigation of the Creasy case showed that computers registered to Wonga.com's London office were used to abuse Creasy over Twitter, and delete criticism, as well as

3139-509: The category of " usury " under the See Also section. Wonga sponsored Blackpool Football Club from 2010 to the end of the 2014–15 season. Wonga's sponsorship of Heart of Midlothian Football Club ended prematurely in 2014 after the club cancelled the deal. The involvement of the Swiss company and the transfer of the trademark to it in 2012 have been seen by Corporate Watch as part of a scheme by

3212-409: The charity Citizens Advice , whose chief executive Gillian Guy, said: "Adverts must be clear about what taking out a loan means and how much it will cost. The consequences are really serious when payday lending goes wrong. High interest rates and fees can mean that a small loan balloons into a huge debt... both the advertising and payday loan industries need to look at why so many adverts are not meeting

3285-459: The company announced that it would not be offering more loans because of the critical financial situation of the company. However, it decided to only entertain their existing clients. Wonga sponsored free travel on the London Underground on New Year's Eve in 2010, and posters were put up on the network advertising the website with the slogan "sometimes you need some extra cash". A member of

3358-479: The company began to incur losses, which were further increased by discontinuation of sponsorship deals, a data breach in 2017, and a surge of customer compensation claims. Despite an emergency cash injection from shareholders to prevent it becoming insolvent, the firm fell into administration on 30 August 2018, with Grant Thornton appointed to wind down the business, sell assets and identify creditors. By March 2019, administrators noted that compensation claims against

3431-470: The company was required by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to improve its debt collection practices, after it was found that it had sent letters to customers in 2010 accusing them of committing fraud and saying that the police might be informed. Telephone scripts used by Wonga warned borrowers working in the public or financial sectors that their terms of employment said they should not be in debt. Wonga appealed

3504-565: The consumer credit industry passed from the OFT to the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) from April 2014. In June 2014, the FCA found that Wonga's debt collection practices were unfair and ordered that they compensate affected customers. The FCA found that between October 2008 and November 2010, Wonga had sent their customers letters purporting to be from non-existent law firms "Chainey, D'Amato & Shannon" and "Barker and Lowe Legal Recoveries", described as "fake" in reports, to collect money from them. In some cases, customers were charged for

3577-470: The cost of living and repaid directly to the SLC. From 1998, with the introduction of tuition fees in the UK , the SLC instead began providing loans under an income-contingent repayment (ICR) scheme. From 2006, with the change to variable or 'top-up' fees, loans covered the cost of tuition fees in addition to living costs. Repayments for these loans are collected by HMRC via the PAYE tax system. The ICR loan scheme

3650-482: The debate' around the brand". In October 2012 Wonga announced that they were sponsoring the football team Newcastle United for £8 million a year. Several MPs spoke out against the deal and the leader of Newcastle City Council told The Guardian he was "appalled and sickened" that the club had signed a deal with "a legal loan shark " and in July 2013 Papiss Cissé refused to wear the kit, citing religious reasons as

3723-588: The decision and said it believed it had grounds for suspecting dishonest conduct by the specific customers to whom letters had been sent, and that they had been sent on isolated occasions more than 18 months previously and had not been sent since. It stated that it had put in place procedures to make sure similar problems did not occur in future, and that since then it referred cases of suspected fraud to an in-house team to investigate. The phone scripts had not been used since January 2010, it said. In November 2013, after being challenged repeatedly by members of Parliament in

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3796-509: The firm designed to avoid tax. According to Accountancy Age , in 2012, a net amount of £35 million was paid to WDFC SA, the profit on which will only be taxed in Switzerland. Several Wonga executives, are now believed to be based in Geneva in connection with the business of WDFC SA. In 2013, an Irish subsidiary of Wonga patented "user authentication software", telling Corporate Watch that "it

3869-766: The firm increased, but with many claimants unlikely to receive the full value of their claim. Wonga was co-founded by Errol Damelin and Jonty Hurwitz in October 2006, who derived the name from the Romany slang term for money that was in use in some parts of Britain since the 1980s. The plan for the company was to disrupt the short-term credit industry with a new branch of lender that provided transparency, exact control of amount and payment date, and immediate access to funds to customers, without hassling them through faxing or emailing documents. Although both men had previous experience in internet start-up operations, neither Damelin or Hurwitz had any within retail banking, which presented

3942-405: The first year of operations, the company used this period to gather data on customer behaviour in order to develop their own proprietary risk technology. The full market launch of Wonga.com was officially made in July 2008, and within a year it had processed around 100,000 loans. Through the experience of processing these loans, the company developed technologies which began to dramatically reduce

4015-445: The knowledge of the company and disciplinary action would be taken. In June 2013, the consumer minister called payday lenders to a summit to discuss "widespread irresponsible lending." The article quoted the APR of Wonga -the largest lender as 5835%. Wonga's pre-tax profits were quoted as £62.4m. In November 2013, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband criticised payday lenders for creating

4088-481: The level of interest that can be charged on all loans by financial institutions. British MP Stella Creasy has also proposed legislation for interest rate caps. A Policis report on proposed interest rate capping said it would cause an exit from the market and those with access to the credit mainstream would be diverted to products such as overdrafts and revolving credit that could be higher cost than high APR products and those without access to credit would be diverted to

4161-498: The loans being sold to Income Contingent Student Loans 1 (2002-2006) Plc, a group of silent investors, and raised £1.7bn. The SLC remained responsible for the day-to-day administration of all duties related to the repayment of these loans, and repayments would be paid on to the Investors. As was true in the previous debt sales, the same was true for this first ICR debt sale in that the new debt owner(s) are unable to change any aspect of

4234-440: The much wider catchment practice of payday loans , required an algorithm that could fully determine risk in an automated manner – something they had difficulty developing in the early stages. In addition, Damelin and Hurwitz required the co-operation of leading banks to help get funds directly to customer's bank accounts as quickly as possible, by convincing them that customer identity could be provided without physical documentation,

4307-430: The percentage of defaults. In July 2009 Wonga raised a further £13.9m of funding in a Round B led by Accel Partners , Greylock Partners and Dawn Capital. In 2009 the company was already profitable and default rates were below 10%, less than the average for credit cards. A third round of funding was completed in 2011, for £73m led by Oak Investment Partners including additional investors Meritech Capital Partners and

4380-576: The previous year had fallen by 53% to £39.7 million. The company blamed the cut in profits to "remediation costs" – compensation paid to customers – which in total cost the company £18.8m, and predicted its profitability would be reduced through new controls set out by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) from June of that year. Along with conforming to the new rules set out by the FCA, which limited roll-overs of loans and forced them to increase affordability checks, price caps were introduce from

4453-542: The public finances. In January 2011, executive Ed Lester was given a two-year contract as the head of the Student Loans Company, for which he was paid through his personal services company without deduction of income tax and national insurance contributions . Following criticism and parliamentary debate, these arrangements were changed in February 2012 and Mr Lester was then paid through the SLC payroll. A review of

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4526-562: The recommendation, and the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments was established in November 1995. While in opposition, the Labour Party promised to reduce the number and power of NDPBs. The use of NDPBs continued under the Labour government in office from 1997 to 2010, though the political controversy associated with NDPBs in the mid-1990s for the most part died away. In 2010

4599-537: The reference to " usury " from the English Misplaced Pages 's Wonga.com page. Wonga.com admitted that a "junior employee" may have sent the tweets and defended what it regards as its right to correct "inaccurate" Misplaced Pages articles, though Misplaced Pages policy on conflict of interest says such edits are "strongly discouraged." Wonga.com later apologised to Creasy and condemned the Twitter comments, saying they were posted without

4672-533: The responsibility of devolved government , various lower tier boards (including a considerable number within the NHS), and also other boards operating in the public sector (e.g. school governors and police authorities). These appointed bodies performed a large variety of tasks, for example health trusts , or the Welsh Development Agency , and by 1992 were responsible for some 25% of all government expenditure in

4745-430: The risks of payday loans and concluded by expressing the hope that his example would make people "think twice before getting payday borrowing". Wonga stated that they stopped charging interest altogether once a loan became more than 60 days overdue. Wonga argued that their rates may be high but the amount charged is transparent and without lenders like them, borrowers would be forced to use illegal lenders. In April 2014,

4818-409: The start of 2015. The tougher regulations on the payday loan sector impacted the firm significantly, doubling its loss as its UK consumer base was greatly reduced; around almost 3.8 million of the 4 million loans it granted around that time were to UK customers. By the end of 2015, the company reported a pre-tax loss of £80.2m for the year – up from £38.1m the year before . In April 2017, Wonga suffered

4891-436: The supposed lawyers' fees for these letters; Labour MP Stella Creasy asked why the police were not investigating. This practice had been uncovered by the OFT in 2011, after Wonga was asked to disclose information about its debt collection practices. "Wonga's misconduct was very serious because it had the effect of exacerbating an already difficult situation for customers in arrears," said Clive Adamson, director of supervision at

4964-604: The tax arrangements for public sector appointees was undertaken by the Treasury as a consequence of this issue. In July 2014, the SLC was accused of using controversial tactics akin to those of the payday loans company Wonga after it was discovered that it had been sending out letters from what appeared to be an independent debt collection agency called Smith Lawson & Company. (In June 2014, Wonga had been ordered to pay £2.6 million in compensation for sending customers letters from fictitious debt recovery firms.). The SLC announced it

5037-439: The terms and conditions that applied when a borrower entered into their contract to receive (and repay) their student loans. A second ICR debt sale was completed in December 2018 raising £1.9bn. In March 2020 the government announced it would not conduct any further student loan sales. This was due to a change in the way student loans were accounted for by the Office for National Statistics , meaning sales would no longer improve

5110-401: Was 358,000. They shared around £23m in compensation, around 4.3% of what they were owed. Wonga was dissolved on 19 December 2020. Over 180 million shares of the company are owned by venture capital firms, around 77.1%. The balance of the company is owned by staff, board members and founders with Errol Damelin owning 26.5m shares through Castle Bridge Ventures, an offshore trust based in

5183-626: Was a British payday loan firm that was founded in 2006. The company focused on offering short-term, high-cost loans to customers via online applications, and began processing its first loans in 2007. The firm operated across several countries, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland and South Africa; it also operated in Canada until 2016, and in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands through

5256-536: Was replaced with a new ICR scheme in 2012 to include a longer repayment period following an increase in tuition fees . In the late 1990s, the government sold two tranches of the mortgage-style loans to investors. Firstly in 1998 to Greenwich NatWest raising £1bn, and secondly in 1999 to Deutsche Bank and the Nationwide Building Society , also raising £1bn. The SLC's remaining mortgage-style loans, for which payments were mostly in arrears, were sold to

5329-651: Was suspending the use of the letters, which it said had used the "secondary brand" (which small print at the bottom of the letters indicated was a trading name of the Student Loans Company) to avoid paying fees to a conventional debt collection agency. Non-departmental public body The term includes the four types of NDPB (executive, advisory, tribunal, and independent monitoring boards) but excludes public corporations and public broadcasters ( BBC , Channel 4 , and S4C ). The UK Government classifies bodies into four main types. The Scottish Government also has

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