Consumer Protection Laws and Regulations in Deposit and Loan Services : A Cross-Country Analysis with a New Data Set

Ardic, Oya Pinar ; Ibrahim, Joyce A. ; Mylenko, Nataliya

关键词: ACCESS TO CREDIT;    ACCESS TO FINANCE;    ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES;    ACCESSIBILITY;    ADVERTISEMENT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5536
RP-ID  :  WPS5536

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Consumer protection and financialliteracy can contribute to improved efficiency,transparency, competition, and access in retail financialmarkets by reducing information asymmetries and powerimbalances between providers and users of financialservices. Financial consumer protection has gainedsignificance in policy debates, especially since the onsetof the financial crisis in 2008. This paper presents theresults of a survey on consumer protection regulations in142 countries. The findings indicate that although consumerprotection legislation is in place in the majority ofcountries, these do not necessarily address the issuesspecific to financial services. There is some evidence thatenforcement powers and monitoring capacity are limited inmany countries, obstructing the effective implementation ofthe existing regulations. Furthermore, independent thirdparty dispute resolution mechanisms are not widespread. Thepaper also compiles comprehensive information on laws andregulations relevant for consumer protection and discusses anumber of challenges related to empirical analyses offinancial consumer protection to enable cross-country comparison.