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Roadmap to Reform: Lessons from around the world to guide consumer credit reporting reform in Australia

Roadmap to Reform: Lessons from around the world to guide consumer credit reporting reform in Australia
October 2008
Roadmap to Reform: Lessons from around the world to guide consumer credit reporting reform in Australia

PERC's Roadmap to Reform details the benefits of comprehensive credit reporting, as well as detailing transitional challenges of switching to a full-file system.

Information Sharing and SMME Financing in South Africa: A Survey of the Landscape

Information Sharing and SMME Financing in South Africa: A Survey of the Landscape
September 2008
Information Sharing and SMME Financing in South Africa: A Survey of the Landscape

This report focuses on the current state of credit access for small, medium, and micro-enterprises in South Africa. In particular, it examines barriers to credit access and viable near-term solutions to reduce or eliminate those barriers.

Recovering But Not Recovered: Gulf Coast Businesses Three Years Later

Recovering But Not Recovered: Gulf Coast Businesses Three Years Later
August 2008

This is a follow-up to the 2007 small business survey and provides further insight as to the progress of recovery from the hurricanes of 2005. As with the 2007 survey, this year’s survey asked small business owners and operators about the changing state of their business since the 2005 hurricanes, and since August of 2007.

Financial Impacts of Disaster: What We Can Learn from Credit File Data

Financial Impacts of Disaster: What We Can Learn from Credit File Data
August 2008
Financial Impacts of Disaster: What We Can Learn from Credit File Data

This report sheds additional light on the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the storms of 2005 on individuals, businesses, and communities of the Gulf Coast, using datasets previously not used for such purposes.

You Score You Win: The Consequences of Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

You Score You Win: The Consequences of Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
July 2008
You Score You Win:  The Consequences of Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

A follow-up to PERC's ground-breaking report on alternative data, this study examines the long-term effects of using non-traditional data in credit files using quantitative analysis.

The Structure of Information Sharing and Credit Access: Lessons for Policy

The Structure of Information Sharing and Credit Access: Lessons for Policy
July 2008
The Structure of Information Sharing and Credit Access: Lessons for Policy

This white-paper, produced for the Asia-Pacific Credit Coalition, outlines recent developments in the economic impact of information sharing in consumer credit markets.

Using non-traditional data for underwriting loans to thin-file borrowers: Evidence, tips, and precautions

Using non-traditional data for underwriting loans to thin-file borrowers: Evidence, tips, and precautions
March 2008
Using non-traditional data for underwriting loans to thin-file borrowers

This paper, published in the Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions, demonstrates the value of non-traditional data as a powerful tool for consumer credit risk assessment while highlighting some of the potential risks and precautions that lenders need to think about before using these tools.

Credit Access

Got something to add?

PERC is working to build the best online resource for alternative data and information-led development on the Web. If you feel we missed any important resource, please e-mail Jaki Bradley at bradley@perc.net.

PERC's areas of expertise include:

Information-led Development

PERC is a global leader in information-led development, the use of robust sets of information to enable economic development and asset building on a massive scale. See the project page for more information.


Alternative Data

Since 2003, PERC scholars have lectured policy makers on six continents -- from the World Bank to the United States Congress -- on the use of non-financial payment information, such as energy utility and rental payments, for credit scoring and asset building, also known as alternative data. For more information on this signature issue, please see the project page.


Financial Impacts of Disaster

PERC has pioneered the use of credit file and other data sets to track the economic effects of natural disasters and other exogenous shocks, as well as evaluating recovery efforts. Most recently, PERC examined economic recovery in the Gulf Coast after the 2005 hurriances.


Consumer Credit Access in the United States

Dataflows and Global Development

Projects in this category consider the interplay between technological and educational endowments, regulatory regimes, and economic development. Projects in this category have examined the relationship between a variety of factors—from cross-border data flows to credit reporting systems—and how these factors affect developing and developed world economic performance.

Data Security

Worldwide Sourcing

These activities are focused on the phenomenon of worldwide sourcing (better known as offshore outsourcing) and examining its economic impact domestically and abroad. PERC places particular emphasis on how cross-border data flows, data security practices, and legal frameworks for data protection may affect worldwide sourcing patterns.


Media Concentration and Convergence

Data Privacy

Media comment or questions?


All inquiries should be directed to:

Jaki Bradley
Special Projects Manager
+1 919 338 2798 x 803
bradley@perc.net