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

Asda is the UK’s third largest supermarket and has more than 150,000 workers. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

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.

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 being directly deducted from workers’ pay packets.