Increasing the South African consumer’s access to credit through the use of non-traditional sources

Abstract

In 2007, 12.5 million South African adults were classified as being unbanked and having limited access to financial services including credit. Of the 19 million consumers who have access to bank accounts and financial services products, 17.14 million are reported to be credit active. There is a need for government and/or credit providers to find new mechanisms for consumers to obtain access to financial services and allow them a chance to escape poverty. Research was conducted on the data of a South African Municipality to determine whether there was a correlation between how consumers paid their municipal utility accounts and whether they had a good or bad credit bureau report. If the utility accounts show significant correlation to the credit bureau reports (which are based on data provided by credit grantors), then the utility accounts can be deemed to display ‘credit-like’ characteristics. This then provides evidence in support of the municipality providing their data to the credit bureau so that it can be used as additional data on which credit grantors can determine the credit risk of a consumer and possibly grant credit to someone who was previously denied. The analysis conducted revealed a significant correlation between the payment behavior on the consumer’s utility accounts to the data reflected on a credit bureau. It showed that the data provided displayed the same ‘credit-like’ characteristics as traditional credit accounts and supports the concept that the Municipality can provide their data to a credit bureau to be used in risk determination. Copyright