This is...fascinating.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the worldwide Anglican church, was a member of Parliament's commission on banking standards and has been an outspoken critic of the payday lending industry. Now, he suggests that credit unions in the UK be allowed to use church halls to, as the Guardian puts it, "help match often vulnerable, low-income borrowers with the most appropriate lenders."
The Church of England's director of mission and public affairs was a bit on the blunt side when asked:
It is not about regulating them [payday lenders] out of business. If the market is functioning as it should, there should not be any need for them to exist.
Wow.
Imagine if the same were to happen here in the US. There are thousands of non-profit credit unions in this country; if they were to join forces with the churches in any significant fashion, we could make significant inroads into the multi-billion-dollar ripoff industry known as 'payday loans.'
One wonders what the Anglican churches in the US will have to say on this point...