A bill of £34 million has been handed down by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to payday lender CFO Lending for a string of customer abuses common in the sector.

These include taking repayments without permission, sending threatening letters, giving misleading and damaging information about customers to credit reference agencies, refusing reasonable repayment plans and overcharging.

The abuses took place over five years and affected nearly 100,000 customers. The FCA has forced the company to write off £31.9million in outstanding balances and return £2.9 million in cash to their abused customers.