Key facts
PiggyBank stopped lending on 5 December 2019 when the parent legal entity, DJS (UK) Limited, entered administration. The summary below records the key facts of the administration and redress process.
Operating entity: DJS (UK) Limited, Companies House registration number 07952979, registered office 28 Avenue Road, Parkway House, Bournemouth. Trading names included PiggyBank, PiggyBank Zero, PiggyBank Instalment loans, PiggyBank Loans, Aeroplane Loans and PiggyBank Guarantor Loans. Source: FCA Voluntary Requirement notice, April 2018.
Timeline
The PiggyBank closure-relevant timeline focuses on the events from 2018 onwards, when the FCA Voluntary Requirement first paused new lending and triggered the chain of events leading to administration the following year.
PiggyBank founded
Daniel Tannenbaum and Daniel Hilton found PiggyBank as a Bournemouth-based online payday lender. The product targets short-term cash flow gaps with loans of typically £100 to £500 repaid on the borrower's next payday. The firm grows steadily through 2012 to 2014.
FCA price cap takes effect
The FCA price cap on high-cost short-term credit comes into force. Maximum daily interest is set at 0.8 percent. PiggyBank adapts its product structure but retains the high-frequency repeat-borrower model that defined the pre-cap UK payday market.
Growth into instalment lending
PiggyBank expands its product range from single-payment payday loans into longer instalment products of up to 5 months. The firm reaches an estimated 10 percent share of the post-cap UK payday market by loan volume. By 2018 PiggyBank is among the ten largest UK payday lenders.
FCA imposes Voluntary Requirement
The FCA imposes a three-month Voluntary Requirement on DJS (UK) Limited prohibiting new lending. The regulator cites concerns about affordability checks at the point of lending. The decision is one of the most significant regulatory interventions against an active UK payday loan firm to that point.
Lending resumes
The Voluntary Requirement ends and PiggyBank resumes new lending under modified affordability procedures. Loan volumes do not return to the pre-suspension level. The complaint backlog continues to build.
Affordability complaint volumes accelerate
The Financial Ombudsman Service starts upholding affordability complaints against PiggyBank at high uphold rates. The complaints mirror the pattern at other UK payday firms in the same period. The firm increases its provision against redress liability in successive accounts periods.
Administration
DJS (UK) Limited enters administration. Shane Biddlecombe and Gordon Johnston of HJS Recovery UK are appointed joint administrators. Lending stops immediately. The administration is one of the largest insolvencies among UK payday firms by claimant count.
Customer redress contact wave
The administrators contact approximately 387,228 former customers as part of the redress process. Eligible claimants are invited to submit affordability complaints to the administration. The administration is structurally complex because of the large claimant base and the limited estate available.
Court order on prescribed-part distribution
A High Court order disapplies the prescribed-part distribution that would otherwise have been due to unsecured creditors. The court accepts the administrators' application that the cost of distributing the small per-creditor amount would exceed the amount itself. The decision means no dividend is paid to most claimants.
What went wrong
PiggyBank's collapse is one of the clearest UK examples of an FCA regulatory action triggering a chain of events leading to administration. The April 2018 Voluntary Requirement was technically a temporary pause on new lending. The operational and reputational impact persisted long after the formal suspension lifted.
Voluntary Requirements as supervisory tools
The FCA can impose Voluntary Requirements on regulated firms as an alternative to formal Variation of Permission proceedings. The mechanism is technically agreed rather than imposed. The practical effect on the business can be severe. PiggyBank is one of a small group of UK payday firms where a Voluntary Requirement preceded a closure within 18 to 24 months of the regulatory action.
The affordability complaint pattern
Affordability complaints against PiggyBank followed the same trajectory as those against other UK short-term loan firms of the period. Complaints typically asserted that DJS (UK) Limited had not adequately assessed affordability at the point of lending and had allowed repeat lending to financially stretched customers. The Financial Ombudsman Service was upholding such complaints at consistently high rates by 2018-2019.
Market position at the point of administration
PiggyBank was a top-ten UK payday lender by volume immediately before administration, with around 387,228 customers across its trading names. The Voluntary Requirement and subsequent margin compression rendered the original commercial model unviable. The firm was operationally functional at administration. It could not generate sufficient earnings to absorb the affordability redress liability.
No dividend on prescribed part
On 25 September 2023 a High Court order disapplied the prescribed-part distribution from the administration. The administrators argued that the average per-claimant share of the prescribed part would be a few pence at most. The cost of identifying claimants and processing payments would exceed the available amount. The court accepted the application. No dividend has been paid to former PiggyBank customers from the administration estate.
If you had a PiggyBank loan
The administrators ran a redress contact process during 2020 and 2021. The summary below records what former PiggyBank customers should expect in 2026.
Successful affordability claimants
Claimants whose affordability complaints were accepted by the administrators were registered as unsecured creditors of the administration. The claim entitlement was recorded against the estate. The 25 September 2023 court order disapplied the prescribed-part distribution that would normally have produced a small dividend. The practical outcome is that successful claimants received no payment from the administration. Borrowers needing new credit while a legacy claim is unresolved can apply for a same-day loan from an active FCA-authorised direct lender instead.
Outstanding loan balances
PiggyBank loan balances outstanding when the administration commenced were collected as part of the asset realisation process. Loans were sold or assigned to a third-party debt purchaser during the wind-down. Borrowers receiving collection contact in the PiggyBank name in 2026 are dealing with the debt purchaser rather than DJS (UK) Limited.
Loans sold to a third-party debt purchaser
Loans sold to a third-party debt purchaser as part of the wind-down are now owned by the new owner. The original PiggyBank credit agreement transferred to the new owner. Anyone receiving collection contact in 2026 should ask the new owner for the original PiggyBank credit agreement plus a deed of assignment before making any payment. Any complaint about original mis-selling is now a matter for the debt purchaser to handle.
Compensation under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme
High-cost credit firms, including those that historically offered bad credit payday loans, are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The administration is the only redress route. The 25 September 2023 court order on the prescribed part has effectively closed that route. The Financial Ombudsman Service is unable to consider new complaints against DJS (UK) Limited because of the administration.
If you are in current financial difficulty
The four bodies below provide free, impartial guidance to former payday loan customers. None of them charge for help. None have any commercial relationship with a lender, broker or claims management firm. Each can advise on disputed historical balances and on the formal options available where a balance cannot reasonably be paid.
The regulatory legacy
The PiggyBank case is studied in UK consumer credit policy as an example of an FCA Voluntary Requirement leading to a closure within 18 months. The administration also produced one of the first reported court orders disapplying the prescribed-part distribution in a UK consumer credit insolvency.
Voluntary Requirement to administration as a regulatory pathway
The PiggyBank case is a structural example of an FCA Voluntary Requirement preceding a closure. The 2018 suspension stopped new lending for a defined period. The reputational impact and reduction in operational scale that followed contributed materially to the firm's inability to absorb the subsequent complaints liability. Policy commentators have noted the case as one where the regulatory intervention produced a downstream insolvency rather than the intended remediation.
The active short-term credit market in 2026
Borrowers who would previously have used PiggyBank for a short-term advance now typically apply for unsecured short-term credit from the active panel of FCA-authorised direct lenders. A small loan from a direct lender is the more likely fit where the amount needed is modest. The post-cap UK market is materially smaller than during the period in which PiggyBank operated. The active firms are concentrated among a smaller number of larger operators.
Prescribed-part disapplication as precedent
The 25 September 2023 court order disapplying the prescribed-part distribution is one of the first recorded examples of the procedure being used in a UK consumer credit administration. The decision is informative for other administrations of UK payday firms with large claimant bases and limited estates. The administrators of comparable firms have drawn on the PiggyBank order in their own court applications.
Where former PiggyBank customers borrow now.
Three FCA-authorised firms in the UK short-term loan market that former PiggyBank customers may now consider. None are connected to DJS (UK) Limited or its trading brands. All operate within the FCA price cap framework.
Direct lender for short-term instalment loans of £100 to £1,500 over up to 6 months. Gain Credit LLC, FCA authorised since 2008. The closest active peer to PiggyBank in product structure and target customer.
Direct lender for online instalment loans of £300 to £1,100 over 4 to 12 months. Western Circle Limited, FCA authorised since 2014. Established UK direct-lender alternative to closed online payday brands.
Direct lender for short-term loans of £200 to £1,000, terms 1 to 6 months. PDL Finance Limited, FCA authorised since 2009. Established direct-lender peer covering a similar product range to PiggyBank.
Sources and verification
Operating entity: DJS (UK) Limited, Companies House registration number 07952979. Registered office: 28 Avenue Road, Parkway House, Bournemouth. FCA firm reference number 725012. Verified against Companies House records on 28 April 2026.
FCA Voluntary Requirement, April 2018: FCA notice on the DJS (UK) Limited Voluntary Requirement. The notice records the regulatory concern about affordability checks and the duration of the suspension on new lending.
Administration filings: Filed at Companies House from December 2019 onwards. Joint administrators originally Shane Biddlecombe and Gordon Johnston of HJS Recovery UK, subsequently TruSolv Limited (now Fortus Recovery). Verified against the active filing register.
25 September 2023 court order: The High Court order disapplying the prescribed-part distribution was filed at Companies House and reported in trade press. Primary effect: no dividend payable to former PiggyBank customers from the administration estate.
Verification approach: All milestones verified against the FCA news archive, Companies House filings or contemporaneous trade reporting. Swift Money Limited is a credit broker, not a lender. This page is an editorial record published by Swift Money. The firm has no commercial relationship with any entity that operated under the PiggyBank brand. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 738569.