A STUDENT campaign is to urge Scottish colleges and universities to ban on-campus advertising by controversial payday lenders.

The National Union of Students said Northampton, Northumbria and Swansea universities have banned the advertisements and it wants other institutions, including those in Scotland, to do the same

Britain's biggest payday lenders have been warned by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) they risk being put out of business.

The OFT found evidence of "widespread irresponsible lending" after a probe of pay-day lenders, including firms appearing to be heavily reliant on struggling customers who cannot afford to pay loans back on time.

Gordon Maloney, NUS Scotland vice-president, said: "NUS Scotland has been campaigning for some time to help students avoid the need to take on commercial debt such as payday loans.

"Our research has found some payday lenders are targeting vulnerable students, so it's important we do everything we can to limit their ability to reach our campuses by turning them into 'shark-free' zones, while ensuring students have the support they need to not have to seek payday loans."

He added: "We will continue campaigning to improve the financial support students receive, and work with students' associations across Scotland to replicate the excellent work done by other students' unions across the UK to prohibit on-campus advertising by payday loan companies."

The OFT is expected to announce shortly if it will refer the industry to the Competition Commission, which has powers to ban or limit products or even whole markets.

For some years NUS has had concerns about payday lenders. The union says it knows some have targeted students.

It has found from its own research some of the most vulnerable student groups are more likely to access pay-day loans – student parents, student carers and others.

However, Russell Hamblin-Boone, chief executive of the Consumer Finance Association, which represents major short-term lenders, said: "It is concerning the NUS is denying choices to its members, who are all educated and intelligent people, without fully understanding either the short-term lending industry or the way young people are managing their finances in 2013."