Central Bank anxious about rise in people using moneylenders
The Central Bank says people are taking loans from moneylenders for longer periods.
It has told the Oireachtas finance committee that the number of people getting loans from moneylenders has risen by 60,000 in the last six years.
It says consumers need to be aware that some moneylenders carry interest rates of up to 287%.
Bernard Sheridan of the Central Bank says the longer times taken to repay loans is something they are worried about.
Mr Sheridan said: "This is an area of concern for us in terms of the fact that people are using monelylenders for longer periods of time, and is that down to how the moneylenders are operating?
"Because they are offering new loans to people, in a minority of cases, who already have got existing loans, and our concern is are they being offered that loan to keep the relationship going, to keep the debt in place.
"We are looking at how can we intervene there more strongly."
