If there's one thing the world learned from the credit crunch it's that financial markets need to be regulated. Unfortunately this is one lesson the UK government doesn't seemed to have grasped.

A perfect storm of of rising costs, frozen wages and low employment has allowed payday lenders to flourish. More and more hard-pressed people are paying off one payday loan with another. Remarkably, and unlike any other country, the UK market is practically unregulated, meaning lenders are free to charge up to 16,000 per cent interest.

On Monday, MPs will debate the Financial Services Bill but currently there are no plans to tackle payday lenders. Earlier this week we met MP Stella Creasy who is trying to do something about it. See our article, and find out how you can act here.

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