MORE than 387,000 customers of a collapsed payday lender will be invited to submit claims for redress from administrators.

Bournemouth-based DJS (UK) Limited – trading as PiggyBank – was one of the UK’s 10 biggest payday lenders when it went into administration in December 2019.

It provided short-term loans of up to £1,500 at 0.8 per cent interest per day – equivalent to an annual percentage rate (APR) of 1,270 per cent.

The company had 57 staff at Parkway House, Avenue Road, as of 2018 and featured in the Sunday Times’ Top 100 Best Companies to Work For.

But it was suspended from lending for three months in 2018 when the Financial Conduct Authority raised concerns about its checks on whether loans were affordable.

In a report covering the period from June to December last year, joint administrator Shane Biddlecombe of Fortus Recovery said there were 387,228 past customers of the company.

Since the administrators were appointed at the end of 2019, 2,376 redress claims totalling £1.35million had been upheld.

“The administrators will now invite and agree claims from historic customers. The administrators are not able to accurately estimate the level of unsecured redress claims at this stage,” he wrote.

However, only £600,000 is expected to be available for unsecured creditors, who include the borrowers lodging claims.

The directors of DJS (UK) Ltd had estimated the claims of other unsecured creditors at a total of £467,139. They estimated trade creditors were owed £208,473.

But six creditors have so far submitted claims totalling £1.6m, with 16 yet to submit claims.

Staff are believed to be owed £175,121 in redundancy and notice pay.

Administrators expect the assets of DJS (UK) Ltd to total £16.7m, with the costs of administration expected to reach £4.1m, including £1.1m in administrators’ fees.

The company owed an estimated £21.8million to wealthy individuals who held 46 debentures – loans secured against its assets.

Administrators have been dealing with challenges from some investors and reached a compromise with one whose case could have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal costs.

Staff who were owed £55,051 in holiday pay had had their claims as preferential creditors settled.

Mr Biddlecombe said another £840,864 had been collected from loan customers since his previous report. The administrators were supporting those who were unable to meet their repayments because of the pandemic, he said.