The Most Rev Justin Welby told Total Politics magazine he had stated his intentions to Errol Damelin, the CEO of Wonga , during a "very good conversation".
He said:
"I've met the head of Wonga and we had a very good conversation and I said to him quite bluntly 'we're not in the business of trying to legislate you out of existence, we're trying to compete you out of existence'. He's a businessman, he took that well."
The Archbishop's remarks come shortly after he launched a new credit union for clergy and church staff earlier this month at the General Synod in York. Mr Welby, who served on the parliamentary Banking Standards Commission, has said he plans to boost competition in the banking sector by expanding the reach of credit unions.
In April, the Government announced an investment of £38m in credit unions in order to provide an alternative option to payday loans.
Wonga chief executive Mr Damelin said:
"The Archbishop is clearly an exceptional individual and someone who understands the power of innovation. There is mutual respect, some differing opinions and a meeting of minds on many big issues. On the competition point, we always welcome fresh approaches that give people a fuller set of alternatives to solve their financial challenges. I'm all for better consumer choice."
The Archbishop said:
“That's going quite well at the moment. We're putting our money where our mouth is, we're starting a Church of England staff credit union. You've got have a corporate interest body to identify who's members of the credit union We're starting one of those so we're actually getting involved ourselves.
"We're working steadily with the main trade bodies for the credit unions. There's a major investment coming from BIS of £35m over the next 10 years. The Government has, in the regulatory structure that came through the Financial Services Act last year, cleared space for credit unions through approaches to regulation. We've got to have credit unions that are both engaged in their communities and much more professional, and the third thing is people have got to know about them. It's a decade long process.”
