The Future of Digital Credit: A Recent Report Explores How to Make its Second Decade More Impactful Than its First
Unsplash | Joshua Sortino
Read the full article in “NextBillion.”
Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Center for Effective Global Action and Innovations for Poverty Action published a synthesis of collaborative research earlier this year that aims to advance this understanding. The report, “Mobile Instant Credit: Impacts, Challenges, and Lessons for Consumer Protection,” draws on research that investigates digital credit and explores approaches that can better protect consumers and support their financial health. It emphasizes the narrower topics of Mobile Instant Credit (MIC) — small, short-term digital loans that are primarily marketed and used for consumption — and airtime loans, which together formed the first wave of credit digitization. As emergent forms of digital credit come to market, the insights from this synthesis can help us understand the landscape and inform the work of digital credit-related policymakers and practitioners more broadly.
