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Archbishop attacks excessive interest rates
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, echoing growing unease over debt-ridden Britain, said on Friday the poor are being crippled by personal debt and called for greater scrutiny of "doorstep" loan companies.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:35 April 26, 2008
London: Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, echoing growing unease over debt-ridden Britain, said on Friday the poor are being crippled by personal debt and called for greater scrutiny of "doorstep" loan companies.
The spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, launching into a moral debate about the victims of the credit crunch, attacked excessive interest rates charged to the most vulnerable.
"We need to look at what it means for a whole economy to be built up on spiralling, uncontrolled credit," Williams said.
The British have amassed nearly £1.5 trillion of debt, putting them among the world's biggest borrowers.
Most of the debt in Britain's house-owning society is sunk into mortgages and there are growing fears the credit crunch will leave many exposed to bankruptcy if house prices plummet as some analysts fear.
Williams, reflecting on an increasingly secular society where consumerism is king, said he feared the poor are now trapped in a cycle of unsecured borrowing, with children most at risk of being the biggest losers in an economic downturn.
"My immediate concern today is looking at the bottom of the ladder and the way in which the credit crunch impacts so disproportionately on the most disadvantaged," Williams added.
The credit crunch has made getting hold of cash more expensive on financial markets and those higher costs have been passed on to consumers - hitting the poorest the hardest as they struggle to stay afloat.
"One of the things I would really want to see as a matter of urgency reviewed here is the interest rates charged by some doorstep lending companies. People often don't understand what the rates of interest might be," he said.
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