The Chinese government is building the largest public credit information database on earth. The Credit Registry Center of the People's Bank of China registers more than 600 million consumers of which 110 million have a credit relationship with a financial institution. The Center is a public...

In today's digital economy individuals need to constantly provide personal information for different purposes. The compensation for information disclosure occurs through various ways such as price reductions, product personalization, or the apparently free use of Internet services such as search...

Sub-Saharan Africa is seen as a model region in terms of high growth rates in mobile phone use. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that between 2000 and 2011 more than 500 million people in the region subscribed to mobile phone networks. According to the ITU, between 2005...

This report brings together in a single volume the excellent contributions presented at the high-level conference on “The Future of Retail Banking in Europe: Competition and Regulatory Challenges” held at CEPS on the 10th of June 2009. The conference was jointly organized by the European...

It is increasingly observable that competitors in different industries share customer data, which can be used for targeted pricing. We propose a modified Hotelling model with two-dimensional consumer heterogeneity to analyze the incentives for such sharing and its ensuing welfare effects. We...

Sub-Saharan Africa ranks among the top regions in terms of growth in the number of mobile phone users. The success of mobile telephony is attributed to the opening of markets for private players and lenient regulatory policy. However, markets may be increasingly saturated and new regulations...

When granting credit, banks depend on reliable information about the creditworthiness and risk structure of potential borrowers. This information is typically gathered by national credit bureaus. Nationally established banks depend on information from credit bureaus more than ever, particularly...