MPs raise concerns over Asda's link to app offering high-interest loans to staff

An influential group of MPs has sought assurances that Asda is not "squeezing staff" to drive profit after it emerged they are being offered high-interest loans by Wagestream, a company in which the retailer's owner has a stake.

- Sarah Butler Kalyeena Makortoff

The business and trade select committee has written to Asda over its links to the "financial wellbeing app" that recently began offering the supermarket's staff loans of up to £25,000. The default arrangements for Wagestream's "workplace loans" involve debt repayments directly deducted from workers' pay packets.

A holding company controlled by Asda's private equity owner TDR Capital is a shareholder in Wagestream, which has been offering Asda workers a range of other services, including savings pots and wage advances, since 2023.

Documents filed at Companies House show that the holding company, Bellis Financial Investments 2, is one of a number of shareholders in Wagestream, alongside the former Wonga payday loan investor Balderton Capital, and social impact investors including the Joseph Rowntree Foundation via the Fair by Design Fund.

However, the Guardian understands the retailer did not flag its financial link to Wagestream to staff when it initially launched the service to workers two years ago. Wagestream - which this week rebranded itself as Stream - started offering "workplace loans" to Asda staff this year.

Liam Byrne, chair of the business and trade committee, said he had written to Asda "to ask them to reassure us that frontline workers aren't left facing sky-high interest rates, and that its workplace lending is compliant with Asda's legal requirements under employment law".

"Asda is one of Britain's most important employers with over 150,000 workers and is at the heart of our grocery market," he said.