The company is also on course to close 240 shops by the end of June, taking its total high street estate below 300 as part of the overhaul since Stuart Howard became chief executive of parent group Dollar Financial UK last year.
The Money Shop intends to give branch staff more scope to offer different prices and loan lengths to borrowers, depending on their creditworthiness.
The details are expected to be announced within weeks. Like many short-term lenders, the group and its online sister brands cut rates to adhere to the Financial Conduct Authority cap on fees, which came into force on January 2.
The cap ensures no short-term borrower pays more than £24 for a £100 month-long loan in interest, and no more than £200 in total charges and fees.
The FCA expects the new rules to wipe out all but a handful of large lenders and has left even the biggest providers scrambling to adapt their business models.
The Money Shop is also relaunching a pre-paid credit card to cater for customers unwilling or unsuitable to apply for other forms of consumer credit. Several brands and providers are under consideration, more than a year after the firm withdrew its Titanium pre-paid Mastercard.
Pawnbroking and cheque-cashing services are set to be an ongoing part of the high street business. DFC Global, the parent company of Dollar Financial UK, was taken over by the American private equity group Lone Star in a $1.3bn (£843m) deal last summer.
The British business is also attempting to integrate its various operations, including online operators Payday UK and Payday Express, which have been acquired since Dollar Financial moved into the UK in 1999. As a result, the firm is only applying for one registration under the new FCA consumer finance regime, compared to the four it previously held.
The regulator is yet to disclose the number of consumer lenders that applied for permission to operate before the February 28 deadline. Companies that have applied are now working with the regulator on their business models to ensure they are sustainable and fair to customers before they are granted a full licence towards the end of this year.
Wonga, once the biggest payday lender with a loan book of more than £1bn, is among the firms reviewing its product range as the market shifts. The company has radically scaled back its lending in the past year as a new management team led by Andy Haste works to rehabilitate the brand after a series of embarrassing run-ins with the regulator.
Last month, the firm wrote off investments in its IT “decision engine” and posted a loss of £37m. Provident Financial, the FTSE 250 doorstep lender, said last week that the tougher rules on payday loans presented a chance to expand its three-to-six month loans under the Satsuma brand. The online lending platform had 31,000 customers by the end of March, but is not expected to break even until the end of the year.
telegraph.co.uk
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