Controversial New Zealand money lender Moola has gone into liquidation.
Receiver Rodewald Consulting has been appointed to NZ Fintech Group Holdings, Moola's parent company. Multiple subsidiaries, including Moola, were subsequently placed into liquidation.
Insolvency firm Khov Jones was appointed liquidator of the trading entities, Rodewald Consulting director Tom Rodewald told Newshub.
Moola's website is currently out of order.
An emailed request for comment to the company by Newshub returned an automatic reply saying, "Unfortunately Moola is currently not lending, and is operating at limited capacity".
Notable controversies surrounding the company included it being found in breach of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act by the Commerce Commission. Moola subsequently agreed to a $2.8 million settlement last year after the commission said its fees charged to customers were unreasonable.
Moola was also taken to court by the commission in 2021, alleging the company was engaging in cartel conduct by reaching agreements with other firms to not go for the same Google advertising space.
"The Commission also alleges agreements were reached that the companies would negatively match certain keywords," it said at the time.
"This means that consumers searching for a consumer loan provider on Google may not see ads for other loan providers."
Before 2020, Moola offered loans with interest rates as excessive as 620 percent. That was before a law change in 2020, where the amount of interest loan firms could charge per day was capped at 0.8 percent.
