Publications

Basel III—the international standard for banking regulation—has strengthened global financial stability but has also led to unintended consequences that may hinder progress toward key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper examines how Basel III’s regulatory framework may restrict bank lending to SMEs (impacting SDG 10) and constrain...

Stablecoins are an emerging alternative to major payments and settlement networks globally. The supply of stablecoins is around $300 billion, having grown from under $10 billion five years ago. Approximately 10 million blockchain addresses make a stablecoin transaction every day. The vast majority (>99 percent) of stablecoins reference the dollar...

Access to credit is one of the most powerful drivers of economic opportunity – but only when it is delivered responsibly. At the heart of sound, inclusive financial systems lies a critical yet often overlooked piece of infrastructure: credit information sharing (CIS). Credit information sharing through credit bureaus and registries reduces...

Across disciplines and economies, there is broad agreement: trade is good. In our digital era, digital trade is opening new opportunities for economies to play to their strengths. For example, digital trade significantly lowers barriers to entry, enabling small businesses in remote areas to access global markets through online platforms, bypassing...

Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) are vital to economic growth, job creation, provision of goods and services, and poverty alleviation in emerging markets. MSMEs make up over 90% of all firms and account, on average, for 70% of total employment and 50% of GDP worldwide. The MSME finance gap now stands at $5.7 trillion – a number...

AI is revolutionising credit risk, unlocking new possibilities, and driving innovation. The real value lies in identifying high-impact use cases that deliver measurable outcomes. While integrating AI into established processes like credit risk can be challenging, the potential is immense. Forward-thinking businesses are already seeing impressive...

The success of the data and AI market requires businesses to overcome the trust dilemma. In just the last two years, generative AI has already eclipsed the use of traditional AI. As the market rapidly advances to agentic AI, the impact on decision making will be pervasive, often concealed behind automation and integration. For the good of society...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are central to the green transition. As innovators, they create new sustainable technologies and solutions. They also enable the dissemination of environmentally friendly products and practices throughout the economy and integrate cleaner practices into their own operations. However, many SMEs face...

This empirical white paper assesses the impacts on model predictiveness and credit access of both adopting machine learning techniques and incorporating electronic bank account information (often called cash flow data) in consumer underwriting models. The evaluation was conducted by building a series of models based on an anonymized dataset that...

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) represent a significant part of the world economy, and are one of the strongest drivers of economic development, innovation and employment. Access to finance is frequently identified as a critical barrier to growth for MSMEs.This report re-estimates the finance gap pertaining to Micro, Small and Medium...