Few companies in British fintech history have generated as much controversy as Wonga, and few have fallen as dramatically. Founded in London in 2006, it pioneered online short-term lending — payday loans that could be approved in minutes and deposited in hours, with a slick interface and no branches required. At its peak it was processing hundreds of thousands of loans a month and had expanded into multiple international markets. The technology was genuinely innovative; the business model was not. Annual interest rates running into the thousands of percent, aggressive debt collection practices, and loans made to people who couldn't afford to repay them brought the company into sustained conflict with regulators and the public alike. The FCA's intervention in 2014, capping the cost of payday loans, fundamentally changed the economics of the business. Wonga entered administration in 2018, overwhelmed by compensation claims from customers who had been mis-sold loans. Its story is a cautionary tale that the European fintech ecosystem has largely absorbed: moving fast in consumer lending without adequate responsible lending frameworks doesn't end well, for the company or the customers it claims to serve.