Administrative data such as payment transactions or borrower records are detailed and inexpensive, making it an increasingly popular monitoring tool for regulators and financial institutions. But once you have the data, how do you use it to understand the experiences and challenges of real-life consumers and provide insights into your consumer protection policies? IPA has worked with regulators to put a human face on financial services data across several markets. This includes identifying who pays more or less for the same services, which consumers may be most at risk of overborrowing, and gender differences across account holders.

In this presentation, Daniel Putman, a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with IPA's Consumer Protection Initiative, demonstrated how financial institutions and regulators can use administrative data to predict which consumers may be at risk for outcomes like multiple borrowing, late repayment, and the effective price of credit.

Such tools, in time, may be used to monitor negative consumer outcomes and behavior in real-time. The presentation included evidence from Sierra Leone and Kenya, and a preview of an innovative toolkit for practitioners to integrate predictive modeling and administrative data analysis in their monitoring practices.

The session encouraged audience participation through a series of Zoom polls and real-world examples of how attendees can operationalize this toolkit—from data procurement to analysis. Dr. Putman’s presentation was followed by remarks from Dr. Adano Roba, Director of Policy and Research at the Competition Authority of Kenya, one of IPA’s country partners, who provided a regulator’s perspective of the benefits of this monitoring tool.

To read more, see the event website here.

Watch the webinar recording below: