On behalf of the Asia-Pacific Credit Coalition, PERC CEO & President Dr. Michael Turner presented at the APEC Business Advisory Council Financial Services Capacity Building meeting on Nov. 8th in Honolulu, HI. This event preceded the APEC CEO Summit, also in Honolulu.

PERC's Dr. Robin Varghese and Patrick Walker attended the PRONAFIM Conference in Mexico City, Mexico. The conference brought together the whole of Mexico's microfinance sector and showcased the impact of microfinance with stalls set up by those who benefited from microfinance. While there, PERC networked with staff from a number of Mexican MFIs and bureaus.

PERC's Dr. Robin Varghese attended and presented at the Third Annual Credit Reporting and Risk Management workshop held in Kuala Lumpur. The workshop, geared toward regulators, boasted atendees from more than three dozen countries--namely from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Access to Finance division of the International Finance division of the International Finance Corporation organized and programmed the wokshop. In his presentations, Dr. Varghese discussed the research behind the inclusion of non-financial information for risk assessment and showed ways in which it can perhaps be better than any other measure to facilitate financial inclusion. He also presented some preliminary findings from PERC's revalidation of its alternative data research. The findings showed that even after the financial crisis the inclusion of utility data still expands access to finance and considerably helps consumers.

From September 6 through September 8, PERC's Director of International Operations Dr. Robin Varghese attended and presented at the Expanding Financial Access Through Regional Public-Private Cooperation Forum for regulators and policymakers in Tokyo. The forum was sponsored by Citigroup, and co-organized by a number of organizations including APCC, PERC, the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) to name a few. Policymakers and regulators from more than a dozen APEC and /or ASEAN member states were in attendance.

APCC and PERC organized the second day session on "Improving Information Sharing and Prudential Lending for Greater Financial Inclusion." In three panels, experts, including Dr. Robin Varghese and APCC members Anthony Hadley of Experian and Celina Leung of TransUnion, presented key economic and legal concepts, regulatory frameworks and operational lessons for regulators as they consider how to structure credit reporting in more inclusive ways. The third day also included a discussion of credit reporting for SME financing, organized by APCC member Tom Clark of G.E. Capital.

Presentations from the event are located below in PDF format.

PERC’s Director of Research Patrick Walker presented at Serasa Experian’s Vision 2011 in Sao Paulo. Walker presented findings on the impact of full file (positive and negative data) credit reporting on lending, the transition to full file reporting, national case studies, and the general global movement to full file reporting in recent years.

The presentation from the event is available below.

PERC President Dr. Michael Turner will serve as a keynote speaker at the 2011 World Credit Congress, speaking on credit reporting reform within the Asia Pacific region and serving as a member of a discussion panel. PERC supporter Dun & Bradstreet Australasia is the Platinum Sponsor for this event. For more information, please visit the World Credit Congress site at http://www.creditcongress.com/2011/home.html . Dr. Turner's presentation is available below.

PERC President Dr. Michael Turner will  speak at the World Bank Group's Financial Infrasturcture Week 2011 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This event will gather financial infrastructure practitioners from around the World. Dr. Turner will present findings from PERC's Alternative data research. For more information on the Financial Infrasturcture Week please visit the events website here.

PERC's Dr. Michael Turner will be speaking about alternative data at the Platts 10th Annual Credit and Collections for Utilities. The event will consists of workshops and roundtables, with a panel of 20 experts in economics, collections, and customer service. To register, visit creditandcollections.platts.com.

PERC's Dr. Michael Turner will participate in the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy’s Institute for Affordable Housing Policy roundtable discussion, Navigating Uncertain Waters: Mortgage Lending in the Wake of the Great Recession. This closed-door roundtable will address the level of credit access this marketplace currently provides, debate whether this level of access accurately reflects risk, and analyze the roles government should play in mortgage lending. The discussion will cover both single- and multi-family lending, and will focus on the neighborhoods hit hardest by the crisis. National experts will be present representing a broad array of stakeholders, including financial institutions, community-based organizations, academia and  government.  The roundtable will consist of a keynote address by Michael S. Barr, Professor of Law at University of Michigan Law School, and four substantive discussion sessions. For more on the Furman Center and its coming events, visit http://furmancenter.org/.