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A spokesperson said: "As people continue to face financial challenges due to the ongoing cost of living squeeze, pawnbroking may be a useful product for some to turn to."

But they added that the FCA was working to "raise standards in the high cost credit industry, including in pawnbroking, and we're holding firms to account for meeting them."

Pawnbroking will "likely only worsen, rather than alleviate, peoples' financial position in the long run," warned the charity's director of external affairs, Richard Lane.

Debt charity StepChange says it would rather have more alternatives available to people than high-cost credit but that pawnbroking can be a lot safer than many of the alternatives.

"We hope and believe that, once the FCA appreciate that the loss of access to pawnbroking services would have a devastating effect on these people, that the FCA will work with the pawnbroking and banking industries, both of which they regulate, to agree an approach that will stop the closure of pawnbrokers' bank accounts by banks," he adds.