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Payday lenders should be forced to limit the rolling over of loans, stop allowing customers to switch from one lender to another, and to share information about their customers with other lenders, the business, innovation and skills committee has recommended.

In a report – which described the payday lending and debt management industry as opaque and poorly regulated – the influential committee said the government should outline a timetable within six months for deciding whether control of consumer credit will be transferred from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), a new regulator replacing the Financial Services Authority.

One of the FCA’s first duties should be to address payday lenders’ use of continuous payment authorities – payment instructions that cannot be ended by the borrower – unless lenders commit to stop using them.

The committee’s chairman, Adrian Bailey MP, said: “During these difficult economic times, increasing numbers of people up and down the country – not least some of the most vulnerable members of our society – are relying on the provision of consumer debt management services and payday loans to make ends meet.

“And yet this industry remains opaque and poorly regulated. Despite a g

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