Key facts
Amigo wound down through a Scheme of Arrangement rather than entering administration. The figures below cover the firm's lending profile, the contested first Scheme rejection, the approved second Scheme and the final dividend outcome paid across two distributions in late 2024 and April 2025.
Operating entity: Amigo Loans Limited (FCA reference 688026). Parent company: Amigo Holdings PLC. The total payout of 18.51 pence in the pound comprised an initial 12.5 pence payment in late 2024 and a final 6.01 pence payment in April 2025. The Scheme paid £85.1 million in refunds and £72.9 million in cash redress. Source: FCA statement on Scheme approval. Debt Camel record of the Amigo Scheme.
Timeline
Amigo's nineteen-year history compressed into the events that defined it. The Scheme of Arrangement story is the defining feature, with one rejected proposal and a second approved version. Each milestone is sourced to court judgments, FCA correspondence or regulatory filings made by the listed parent.
Amigo founded
James Benamor founds Amigo Loans, building a guarantor-lending business at a time when the format is established but underserved. The product offers loans up to £10,000 at 49.9 percent representative APR, materially lower than payday loans but higher than mainstream personal loans.
IPO on London Stock Exchange
Amigo Holdings PLC lists on the London Stock Exchange in June 2018, valuing the business at around £1.3 billion. The IPO is one of the largest UK consumer credit listings of the decade.
Affordability complaints surge
The Financial Ombudsman Service starts upholding affordability complaints against Amigo at scale. The complaints pattern is similar to that seen at payday lenders, particularly those offering bad credit payday loans to the same underwriting profile that Amigo's guarantor product targeted. Uphold rates are high and volumes rise rapidly. Amigo makes a £150 million provision for redress liability.
First Scheme rejected by High Court
Mr Justice Miles rejects Amigo's first proposed Scheme of Arrangement after the FCA opposes it. The court accepts the FCA's argument that the proposal is unfair to redress creditors. Customers are being asked to forgo most of their refund while shareholders keep their equity unaffected. The judgment becomes one of the most-cited High Court decisions on Schemes of Arrangement involving regulated firms.
Revised proposals
Amigo proposes two alternative schemes in February 2022. A New Business Scheme contingent on raising capital and FCA permission to lend again. A Wind Down Scheme as a fallback. Customer creditors vote at meetings convened on 12 May 2022.
New Business Scheme approved
The High Court sanctions the New Business Scheme. The court is satisfied that the statutory majority has been achieved, that customer creditors are fairly represented and that the explanatory documentation is adequate. Approval is contingent on Amigo successfully raising capital and securing FCA approval to recommence lending within twelve months.
Capital raise fails, fallback solution activates
Amigo fails to raise the equity capital needed to restart lending under the New Business Scheme. The Scheme automatically transitions to its Fallback Solution. This provides for an orderly wind-down of the existing loan book with redress paid from the proceeds. CEO Danny Malone, appointed September 2022, manages the wind-down.
Penfold succeeds Malone as CEO
Kerry Penfold is appointed Chief Executive Officer on 1 January 2024, succeeding Danny Malone. The new appointment is positioned as a stabilisation hire to oversee the final phase of the wind-down and the parent-company strategic review.
Initial Scheme Payment Percentage set
Amigo announces an Initial Scheme Payment Percentage of 12.5 pence in the pound after substantially all 210,000-plus claims have been adjudicated. The figure is materially below the 41 pence indicative figure in the original New Business Scheme documentation, reflecting the higher-than-expected claim volume.
Initial dividend paid
The initial Scheme dividend of 12.5 pence in the pound is distributed to claimants. Total cash refunds paid through the Scheme reach £85.1 million in respect of upheld complaints and £72.9 million in cash redress.
Final dividend of 6.01p paid
The final Scheme dividend of 6.01 pence in the pound is distributed, bringing the total payout to 18.51 pence in the pound. By January 2025 all customer accounts have been settled, sold or written off. The lending business is operationally wound down.
Lending subsidiaries surrender FCA permissions
Amigo Loans Limited and the other lending subsidiaries surrender their FCA authorisations during 2025 and are placed into liquidation. Parent Amigo Holdings PLC remains listed on the London Stock Exchange but does not itself hold consumer credit permissions.
Reverse takeover exploration
Amigo Holdings PLC appoints Craig Ransley as a board consultant to identify a reverse takeover target in the mining sector. Investors agree to subscribe for £1.5 million in convertible loan notes subject to shareholder approval.
What went wrong
Amigo's situation is structurally different from the payday-lending administrations elsewhere in this directory. The firm did not collapse into administration from a position of immediate insolvency. It chose a managed wind-down through a Scheme of Arrangement after concluding that the redress liability could not be funded from continued operation under the existing model. The story turns on three contested decisions.
The original Scheme proposal asked customers to absorb losses while shareholders kept equity
The FCA's central objection to Amigo's first Scheme proposal in 2021 was that customer creditors were being asked to accept a fraction of their refund while shareholders kept their equity unaffected. The High Court agreed. Mr Justice Miles found that customer creditors had not been given adequate information to assess the proposal and that the absence of any shareholder contribution made the deal one no honest, intelligent reasonable creditor could accept as fair. The judgment forced Amigo to revise the proposal materially. The revised New Business Scheme included a planned equity raise that would have funded a higher dividend and given customer creditors a better outcome on condition that lending could resume.
Claim volumes far exceeded company expectations
Amigo's New Business Scheme documentation indicated claimants might receive approximately 41 pence in the pound in the lending-resumes scenario or 33 pence in the wind-down scenario. The actual outcome of 18.51 pence reflected the volume of claims received. Over 210,000 claims came in against a much smaller expectation. Each additional claim diluted the available pool. The high uphold rate at the Financial Ombudsman contributed to the volume. So did the publicity around the High Court rejection of the first Scheme.
The capital raise required for lending to resume could not be completed
The New Business Scheme as approved required Amigo to raise sufficient equity capital and secure FCA permission to recommence lending. The firm was unable to attract investors at terms that met the conditions. The FCA was unwilling to permit a return to lending under the previous business model. The Scheme automatically transitioned to its Fallback Solution, which provides for the orderly wind-down of the existing loan book without a return to new lending. From that point the trajectory of Amigo Loans Limited was determined.
If you had an Amigo loan
The Amigo Scheme of Arrangement is now closed. Final distributions were paid in April 2025 and all customer accounts have since been settled, sold or written off. The reference summary below covers what each former customer category should expect in 2026.
Successful affordability claimants
Claimants whose affordability complaints were upheld received a total of 18.51 pence in the pound on agreed claim amounts. The payment was made in two distributions: 12.5 pence in late 2024 and 6.01 pence in April 2025. No further dividend will be paid. The Scheme is closed.
Borrowers and guarantors with outstanding loan balances
By January 2025 all customer accounts had been settled, sold or written off. Borrowers seeking new credit at the price point that Amigo occupied can apply for a same-day loan for short-term needs. A broker covering the wider personal-loan market is the alternative route. Borrowers receiving collection contact in the Amigo name in 2026 should request the original credit agreement and a copy of the deed of assignment before paying anything. Guarantors who paid on a borrower's behalf should similarly verify the current owner of the debt and the basis of any contact. Citizens Advice and National Debtline both publish guidance on dealing with debt purchasers handling legacy guarantor-loan accounts.
Customers who did not submit a claim
The Scheme claim window has long since closed. The Financial Ombudsman Service is unable to consider new complaints against Amigo Loans Limited because the entity has surrendered its FCA authorisation and is in liquidation. There is no further redress route available specifically against Amigo.
If you are in current financial difficulty
The four bodies below provide free, impartial guidance to consumer credit borrowers and guarantors. None of them charge for their service. None have any commercial relationship with a lender, broker or claims management firm. Each has expertise in handling legacy guarantor-loan debts where the original lender has closed and the account has been transferred to a third-party owner.
The regulatory legacy
Amigo's wind-down has had two lasting effects on UK consumer credit. The first is the High Court's rejection of the original Scheme of Arrangement, which established a precedent that schemes by regulated firms must adequately protect redress creditors. The second is the effective end of the UK guarantor-lending market as a mainstream product category.
The Miles judgment and shareholder contribution requirements
The May 2021 judgment is now widely cited as the leading authority on Schemes of Arrangement involving regulated consumer credit firms. The principle established was that a scheme cannot expect customer creditors to forgo most of their redress while shareholders keep their equity unaffected. Subsequent FCA guidance on compromises by regulated firms reflects this principle directly. The Morses Club Scheme of Arrangement followed a similar template informed by the Amigo precedent. Shareholder contribution was explicitly written into the proposal.
The decline of the UK guarantor-loan market
Amigo's wind-down effectively ended the UK guarantor-loan category as a mainstream proposition. Smaller guarantor lenders had previously operated alongside Amigo. These included TFS Loans, Buddy Loans, Trust Two and others. Several of those had already ceased trading by 2022. The combination of the affordability complaints landscape, the FCA's tightened supervision of guarantor lending and the practical difficulty of underwriting guarantor liability under modern rules has rendered the category commercially unviable for most operators. Borrowers who would previously have considered guarantor lending now typically apply for an unsecured payday loan or a longer-term personal loan from an FCA-authorised firm.
Where the guarantor-loan demand has gone
Former Amigo borrowers who could afford a 49.9 percent APR product can typically access the personal-loan tier of the post-cap UK market through firms such as 118 118 Money at 49.9 percent representative or Creditstar at 29.7 percent representative. Borrowers requiring a guarantor would now need to look at the much smaller residual guarantor market, where the credit available is materially more limited than during Amigo's operating period. Borrowers needing modest amounts now typically apply for small loans from FCA-authorised direct lenders.
Where former Amigo guarantor-loan customers borrow now.
Three FCA-authorised firms operating in the personal-loan tier that former Amigo customers may now consider. For borrowers needing smaller sums than these firms typically lend, a short-term loan from a payday-style direct lender is the more likely fit. None offer guarantor-backed lending of the type that Amigo specialised in. All operate within the FCA price cap framework where it applies.
Direct lender for personal loans of £1,000 to £8,000, terms 12 to 60 months, 49.9 percent representative APR. Closest active peer to Amigo on price point, although without the guarantor structure. Madison CF UK Limited, FCA authorised since 2013.
Membership-based credit at fixed monthly fee, no interest charged. Different structure to Amigo's interest-bearing model but a useful alternative for borrowers wanting predictable cost. Inclusive Finance Limited, FCA authorised since 2017.
Established credit broker covering the broadest active panel in the directory. Useful where a single-lender direct application is unlikely to succeed. Pre-application eligibility check uses a soft search only.
Sources and verification
Total dividend figure of 18.51 pence in the pound, the split between 12.5 pence initial and 6.01 pence final, the over-210,000 claim count alongside the £85.1 million refund and £72.9 million cash redress totals were all verified against the Amigo Holdings PLC corporate record, cross-referenced with contemporaneous Debt Camel coverage of the Scheme.
High Court rejection of the first Scheme of Arrangement and the basis of the FCA's objection verified against the FCA statement of 23 May 2022 and the original Pinsent Masons commentary on the Miles judgment.
Approval of the New Business Scheme on 23 May 2022, the convening of creditor meetings on 12 May 2022, the alternative Wind Down Scheme structure and the role of the Customer Advocate verified against the Pinsent Masons legal update and the contemporaneous Mayer Brown briefing on the alternative schemes.
CEO succession from Danny Malone (appointed September 2022, departed 31 December 2023) to Kerry Penfold (appointed 1 January 2024) verified against the parent company's regulatory news service announcements.
Amigo Loans Limited (FCA reference 688026) authorisation status, parent Amigo Holdings PLC continuing listed status, the October 2025 appointment of Craig Ransley to identify a mining-sector reverse takeover target and the £1.5 million convertible loan note subscription all verified against parent-company regulatory filings.
Swift Money Limited is a credit broker, not a lender. This page is an editorial record published by Swift Money. Inclusion does not imply commercial relationship between Swift Money and any entity that operated under the Amigo Loans brand. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 738569.