Key facts
Satsuma Loans was a trading brand of Provident Personal Credit Limited rather than a separately incorporated subsidiary. The brand stopped lending on 10 May 2021 and was wound down through the same Scheme of Arrangement that covered the home-collected book.
Operating entity: Provident Personal Credit Limited (PPC), of which Satsuma Loans was a trading brand. The Scheme of Arrangement applied to all PPC trading names as a single estate. Source: FCA news statement on the PPC Scheme; Debt Camel record of the joint Scheme.
Timeline
Satsuma's seven-year operating history sits inside the longer Provident corporate timeline. The events below cover the brand-specific milestones from launch to wind-down.
Satsuma Loans launches
Provident Personal Credit launches Satsuma as an online instalment-loan brand. The product is designed to compete with the online payday and short-term lending category that had grown rapidly during 2010-2013. Loans are £100 to £1,000 repaid in weekly or monthly instalments over 3 to 12 months. The brand operates entirely online with no agent home visits.
Growth period
Satsuma reaches a steady book size during this period. The brand competes alongside Wonga, QuickQuid, Sunny and Pounds to Pocket in the online short-term credit space. The FCA price cap on high-cost short-term credit takes effect in January 2015 and reshapes the economics of the segment.
Affordability complaint volumes rise
The Financial Ombudsman Service begins upholding affordability complaints against Satsuma at high rates. The pattern is consistent with the wider UK online short-term credit sector. PPC adds substantial provisions against redress liability across both the Satsuma book and the home-collected book in successive accounts periods.
Cessation of new lending considered
Provident Financial Group announces a strategic review of PPC. The board indicates that the affordability complaint trajectory has rendered the segment commercially unsustainable. New lending across all PPC brands, including Satsuma, is paused while the structural options are evaluated.
Lending stops
PPC formally stops lending across all trading brands, including Satsuma. The decision affects the home-collected operation, Glo, Greenwood and Satsuma simultaneously. Existing Satsuma loans remain due under their original terms but no new loans are written.
Scheme of Arrangement filed
PPC files a Scheme of Arrangement with the High Court. The Scheme proposes a £50 million shareholder contribution from the wider Provident Financial Group, ringfenced from the continuing Vanquis Bank and Moneybarn businesses. The Scheme covers all PPC trading names as one estate, with no separate Satsuma claim process.
High Court sanctions Scheme
The High Court approves the Scheme of Arrangement. Successful affordability complaints will be paid out of the £50 million pool. The dividend is projected at 5 to 10 pence in the pound depending on final claim volumes. The same dividend range applies to all PPC products.
Loans written off
All outstanding Satsuma loan balances are written off, except where loans had previously been sold to a third-party debt purchaser. Customer credit files at Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are marked partially settled.
Scheme claim deadline
The deadline for submitting a redress claim under the Scheme passes. Late claims are not accepted. The Scheme administrators move into the assessment and payment phase.
Dividend payments
Successful claimants receive 5 to 10 pence in the pound. Payments are made by bank transfer to the bank account verified during the claim process. The Satsuma claimant cohort is treated identically to the home-collected cohort.
What went wrong
Satsuma did not fail because of brand-specific issues. The brand was wound down because the parent legal entity, Provident Personal Credit Limited, faced an aggregated redress liability across all its trading names that the business as a whole could not sustain. The complaints pattern resembles those seen across the wider UK payday loan sector during 2018-2021, where high uphold rates at the Financial Ombudsman Service became the dominant factor.
A trading brand, not a separate company
Satsuma Loans was a trading name of Provident Personal Credit Limited rather than a separately incorporated subsidiary. The brand could not be wound down independently of its parent. When PPC stopped lending in May 2021, Satsuma stopped at the same time. The Scheme of Arrangement covered Satsuma claimants on identical terms to claimants of the other PPC brands.
The shared Provident liability
Affordability complaints against Satsuma were aggregated with complaints against the home-collected Provident book and the Glo and Greenwood brands for solvency purposes. The Provident Financial Group's accounts disclose the combined provision against redress liability across PPC as a single number. By 2021 the aggregated provision had reached a level that the parent group concluded could not be funded out of continuing trading operations.
Why a Scheme rather than administration
The Provident Financial Group preferred a Scheme of Arrangement over administration because a Scheme allowed the group to ringfence a fixed contribution and exit the high-cost credit category in a controlled way. Administration would have transferred control of all PPC operations to an administrator and would have generated higher costs in proportion to the available estate. The Scheme produced a higher dividend outcome (5 to 10 pence) than would have been likely under administration.
Position of the wider group
The Provident Financial Group continues to trade through two continuing businesses: Vanquis Bank in credit cards and Moneybarn in vehicle finance. Neither business was part of the Scheme. Both operate as mainstream FCA-authorised firms in their respective categories at substantially lower headline APRs than PPC's products. The £50 million contribution to the Satsuma and home-credit Scheme was the parent's defined exposure.
If you had a Satsuma Loans loan
The Scheme of Arrangement is the relevant document for any historical Satsuma claim. The summary below records what former Satsuma customers should expect in 2026.
Successful affordability claimants
Claimants whose affordability complaints were upheld within the Scheme received approximately 5 to 10 pence in the pound on agreed claim amounts. The exact percentage varies between cohorts. The dividend was funded by the £50 million parent contribution and was paid by bank transfer in 2023 and 2024 to the account verified during the Scheme claim process. Borrowers needing new credit while a Scheme dividend is awaited can apply for a same-day loan from an active FCA-authorised direct lender.
Outstanding balances on 31 December 2021
Satsuma loan balances outstanding on 31 December 2021 were written off in full, except where loans had previously been sold to a third-party debt purchaser. Customer credit files at Experian, Equifax and TransUnion were marked partially settled. The credit-file marker remains for the standard six-year retention period from the marker date.
Loans sold to a third-party debt purchaser
Loans that had been sold to a third-party debt purchaser before PPC entered the Scheme are not covered by the Scheme write-off. The new owner of the debt continues to manage collection. Any complaint about original mis-selling would now be directed to the debt purchaser, subject to time-bar rules in DISP 2.8.2 and the limitation period for the underlying contract.
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 5 to 10 pence Scheme dividend was the only redress available. The complaint deadline of 28 February 2022 has passed. No further redress will be paid through the PPC Scheme. The Financial Ombudsman Service is unable to consider new complaints against PPC because of the Scheme.
If you are in current financial difficulty
The four bodies below provide free, impartial guidance to consumer credit borrowers, including former short-term loans 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
Satsuma is one of the smaller UK online short-term credit brands by lifetime customer count. The closure formed part of a larger event: the simultaneous wind-down of all PPC trading names and the formal exit of the Provident Financial Group from the UK high-cost credit category.
Multi-brand wind-down within a single legal entity
The PPC case illustrates a feature of the UK consumer credit sector that recurs in this directory: a single FCA authorisation covering multiple trading names that close as one event. Other examples in this directory include CashEuroNet (covering QuickQuid, Pounds to Pocket and Onstride), Instant Cash Loans (covering The Money Shop, PaydayUK and Wage Day Advance) and Indigo Michael (covering SafetyNet Credit and Tappily). When the legal entity fails, all brands fail simultaneously.
The end of UK home-collected credit and online payday lending under PPC
The PPC Scheme effectively ended both home-collected credit and adjacent online payday lending under the Provident Financial Group structure. Combined with the Morses Club administration in November 2023, the closures finished the home-collected category as a mainstream UK product. The online short-term lending market continues at much smaller scale than during the period in which Satsuma operated.
The active small-loan and short-term market in 2026
Borrowers who would previously have used Satsuma 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 closest commercial peers in product structure are firms like Lending Stream and Cashfloat that offer fixed-instalment short-term loans within the FCA price cap framework.
Where former Satsuma Loans customers borrow now.
Three FCA-authorised firms operating in the online short-term and instalment-loan market that former Satsuma customers may now consider. None are connected to Provident Personal Credit Limited or the Provident Financial Group. 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 Satsuma 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.
Line-of-credit facility, with credit limits typically £50 to £3,000 and interest charged only on amounts drawn. Gain Credit LLC, FCA authorised since 2008. Different product structure from Satsuma's instalment model but addresses similar borrowing needs.
Sources and verification
Operating entity: Provident Personal Credit Limited (PPC), of which Satsuma Loans was a trading brand. Verified against Companies House records and the FCA register entry under PPC's firm reference number.
Scheme of Arrangement: Approved by the High Court on 4 August 2021. The Scheme document is the authoritative record of the redress process, the dividend formula and the claim deadline. Verified against the FCA news statement of 5 August 2021 and the Provident Financial Group PLC 2021 annual report.
FCA news statement: FCA news on the Provident Personal Credit Scheme.
Debt Camel record: Debt Camel record of the joint Scheme. Includes contemporaneous reporting on claim handling and the unified dividend across all PPC brands.
Verification approach: Brand-specific information about Satsuma is recorded against the PPC parent records and cross-referenced with the Provident entry in this directory. Swift Money Limited is a credit broker, not a lender. The firm has no commercial relationship with PPC, the Provident Financial Group or the Scheme administrators. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 738569.