At what levels of financial development does information sharing matter?

Background: The purpose of this study is to investigate how an increase in information-sharing bureaus affects financial access. Methods: We employed contemporary and non-contemporary interactive quantile regressions in 53 African countries for the period 2004–2011. Information-sharing bureaus are proxied with public credit registries and private credit offices. Financial development dynamics involving depth (at overall economic and financial system levels), efficiency (at banking and financial system levels), activity (from banking and financial system perspectives), and size are used. Results: Two key findings are established. First, the effect of an increase in private credit bureaus is not clearly noticeable on financial access, probably because private credit agencies are still to be established in many countries. Second, an increase in public credit registries for the most part improves financial allocation efficiency and activity (or credit) between the 25th and 75th quartiles. Conclusions: As a main policy implication, countries in the top and bottom ends of the financial efficiency and activity distributions are unlikely to benefit from enhanced financial allocation efficiency as a result of an increase in public credit registries.