The Remittances Boom Bank Fosters International Public�Private

AccessFinance November 2004 | Issue No.1 A Newsletter Published by FSE ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES Millions of South Africans get first access to banks. Major banks launch a low-cost account aimed at black majority. Chronicle, November 1, 2004. http://www.chronicle.co.zw/2004/ October/26/africa/africa3.htm Welcome to the first edition of AccessFinance! From Bob Keppler CREDIT INFORMATION Credit Information Systems in Less-Developed Countries: Recent History and a Test. Overview of the development and use of credit information systems in industrialized and developing countries. By Jill Luoto, Craig McIntosh, & Bruce Wydick, September 2004. http://are. berkeley.edu/courses/DEVELWORK/ papers/Luoto.pdf The aim of AccessFinance is to share information, ideas and practical experiences on access to financial services and financial infrastructure…continued on page 2 A Tale of Four Village Banking Programs. Best Practices in Latin America. Village banking has established itself as a mainstream methodology for providing savings and loan services to microenterprises. IADB, by Glenn Westley, June 2004. http://www.iadb.org/sds/mic/ publication/publication_159_3735_ e.htm The Remittances Boom What does it mean for the work of development? By Lisa Taber, FSE More Access to Finanical Services on page 5 PAYMENT SYSTEMS ATM industry under pressure. While the ATM business appears to possess healthy fundamentals in aggregate, the picture looks less positive for individual deployers suffering from shrinking margins. ATMmarketplace.com, October 2004. http://www.iadb. org/mif/v2/files/map2004survey.pdf More than US$93billion in remittances poured through formal channels into developing countries in 2003, and these cash flows have nearly quadrupled over the last seven years. While the explosion in migrant remittances has received a lot of attention, less has been said about the specific implications these massive transfers have upon the work of development, and vice-versa. | more on page 2 A Review of Credit Registers and their Use for Basel II. How to focus the use of CRs for more efficient monitoring and, ultimately, implementation of Basel II by the supervisory authority. Financial Stability Institute, Bank of Spain, by Carlos Trucharte Artigas, September 2004. http://are.berkeley.edu/courses/DEVELWORK/papers/Luoto.pdf More Credit Information on page 6 Bank Fosters International Public—Private Dialogue on Credit Reporting Beijing conference draws nearly 300, highlights include discussion of new credit reporting standards, participation of sitting legislators and viewing of a Colombian soap opera By Margaret J. Miller, FSE REMITTANCES Monetary Lifeline. Remittances from migrant workers in rich countries are increasingly important to developing economies. The Economist, July, 2004. http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2963114 Survey of developments in electronic money and internet and mobile payments. Information on current and new innovative products. Consultative Report, Bank for International Settlements, March 2004. http://www.bis.org/publ/cpss62.pdf More Payment Systems on page 7 Nearly 300 delegates from more than 50 countries participated in the international conference, “Public Policy for Credit Reporting Systems: Strengthening Public—Private Dialogue and Partnership” which was held in Beijing, China from September 28 to 30. | more on page 4 Easy Money. Expanding in an age of terror, Western Union faces scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal, by Glenn R. Simpson, October, 2004. http:// www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article. cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/10/20/ financial0927EDT0058.DTL More Remittances on page 7 AccessFinance 2 Welcome continued from page 1 …to enrich our operations and research on these topics. Each newsletter will feature two articles, and highlight selected news items, papers, events and internet resources under four main categories: Access to Financial Services, Credit Information, Payment Systems and Remittances. We would appreciate your suggestions for news and information to include in the next edition of AccessFinance. If you would like to write a feature article or have a story idea to contribute, please contact us as well, at tfiakm@worldbank.org. We hope you find this inaugural edition engaging and useful, and we look forward to your input in the future as we want this paper to benefit all Bank Staff working in these areas. All the best, Robert Keppler Senior Advisor, FSE The Remittances Boom continued from page 1 There is no doubt, however, about their relevance. “We know that remittances really reduce poverty in developing countries,” says Richard Adams (DECRG). Adams, along with colleague John Page (AFRCE), analyzed data from 74 low and middle-income countries last year and found that international remittances, defined by their share of country GDP, have a strong statistical impact on poverty reduction. Adams’s analysis of household survey data from Guatemala, Pakistan and Egypt shows that domestic and international remittances also reduce the level and depth of poverty, and that migrant households tend to spend remittance income on housing and education— investments with a high welfare payoff. So, the 93 billion dollar question is: how do we enhance remittance flows and maximize their development impact? There is one obvious answer: by reducing costs, which are typically between 10–20% of the amount remitted. How to achieve cost reduction is a more difficult question, and a basic understanding of cross-border money transfer systems is needed even to approach it. network of traders. Sam Maimbo (SAFSP), who has studied informal remittance channels in Afghanistan, Pakistan and several African countries, points out that these systems have been a relatively safe, low-cost, fast and accessible means of sending money overseas for centuries. They are also used, in some cases, to launder money and finance illicit activities, and some efforts to protect the integrity of remittance flows have sought to suppress informal remittance channels altogether. But informal agents have long responded to the legitimate needs of people who may not speak the language of formal service providers, or even know how to read the forms they’re required to fill out. Informal networks generally have better geographic reach into recipient towns and villages, as well. Maimbo and others are working on practical and realistic guidelines to better monitor these systems, but most would agree with him that “the best way to deal with the informal sector is to improve formal channels— to make them more attractive.” Formal remittance systems generally rely on a series of bank account debits and credits. The remitting migrant makes a payment to an originator. Usually, the originator deposits the payment into a bank, crediting the account of a distributing agent in the recipient country. This bank must either have a branch in that country, so the local distributor can claim the funds, or a relationship with a bank that does. At the same time, the local bank may have reason to credit an account that belongs to it’s foreign partner, for instance if a local vendor of imported goods wants to “send” a payment to his foreign supplier. In some cases, the origination and distribution functions are provided by the same firm, like Western Union, or a bank that has branches in both the sender and recipient countries. These companies may also contract grocery stores or other banks, for instance, to act as originators or distributors in exchange for a small portion of the commission. But each of these business models rely on banks to settle the accounts between originators and distributors, even when they are part of the same company. (Western Union has its own banking subsidiary, but sometimes relies on other financial institutions as intermediaries, depending on the country.) Where separate financial institutions are used to make the transfer between originator and distributor, the local bank and its foreign partner must net out, or “clear” their accounts at the end of some period. They will then settle the balance due through a wire transfer, or by transferring ownership of a short-term treasury bill, for instance. Correspondent banking partners simply maintain the balance as an asset or liability on their respective balance sheets. In each case, reducing the costs of clearing and settling accounts between banks is one of the keys to reducing the costs of remittance payments— lowering payment distribution costs is another. How do remittance systems work? Simply put, there is an agent in the sender’s country, or province, known as an “originator”, who takes in the remittance and communicates the amount and the recipient’s name to a partner, or “distributor”, in the recipient’s country or province. The sender alerts the recipient, who collects her money from the local distributor, or from his sub-agent. The originator and distributor must then have a way to settle the debt. Informal remittance agents commonly use trade networks to reconcile their accounts. To send money to a customer’s relative in Kinshasa, for example, a shopkeeper in New York City may rely directly on a contact there or on a network of traders, and their contacts. Either way, the shopkeeper communicates the amount transferred and the intended recipient to his counterpart in Kinshasa. The resulting debt is usually settled through shipments of goods, from one agent directly to another or through a circuitous Cooperate on infrastructure, compete on services When more banks share the use of a clearing house— where the debits and credits of all the member institutions are tallied up and netted out over a certain period— the costs of clearance are lower. While some countries have separate clearing houses for credit cards and for payment instruments, the important thing is that banks use the same infrastructure for the same types of transactions, according to Massimo Cirasino AccessFinance 3 of FSE. Similarly, the expense of settling final balances decreases as the number of payments included in the settlement increases. The cost of handling a single remittance payment, therefore, is partly a function of the number of banks participating in the clearing house, and of the number of payments each institution settles at once. To more efficiently clear and settle payments across borders, Cirasino recommends that banks join one of the existing international clearing houses. Companies like Visa and MasterCard provide these services for thousands of institutions worldwide, thus offering tremendous network benefits to member participants and scale economies that lower processing costs. There are other options but again, domestic banks (and their customers) would benefit from cooperating when it comes to choosing a clearing house and negotiating fees as a group. Beyond clearance and settlement, cooperation among financial institutions is key to the efficient distribution of payments from points A to B. By sharing communications networks and entry points into the payments system— including ATMs and Point of Sale (POS) devices— banks and other institutions can significantly lower the costs of moving cash from one location to another. Achieving interoperability among ATM and POS devices and cards would make their placement in less densely populated areas more economical. This is why “financial service providers must compete on services,” says Cirasino, “but cooperate on infrastructure.” Ideally, remittance senders should be able to deposit funds into an account or remotely load value to pre-paid cards, so that recipients can use ATM or POS systems to efficiently access those funds. Development impact: the importance of good numbers The careful tracking of remittance channels and flows that good oversight requires is also vital to development in a number of ways. As Tracey Lane (ECSPE), the Country Economist for Kosovo, puts it: “Remittances have a huge impact on macroeconomic stability.” Lane recently commissioned a study by the Development Prospects Group to review workers’ remittances. Over the last four years, economic growth in Kosovo has been driven by massive external financing in the form of both aid flows and remittances. These are expected to continue to decline and could potentially produce a negative multiplier effect on economic growth. Forecasting the potential macroeconomic impact from changes in remittances, and planning to mitigate those effects, requires accurate estimates of the amounts involved. Information about the volumes of remittances flowing to and from different locations is also vital for the development of strategies to attract competition— especially from financial services providers. Raul Hernández-Coss (FSEFI), who has recently completed an extensive study of the remittance corridors that exist between the US and Mexico, and from Canada to Vietnam, emphasizes this point. For the US-Mexico corridor, Hernández-Coss finds that average remittance costs are significantly lower for transfers sent from Chicago to Michoacan, compared to those sent from Las Vegas to Guanajuato, though the volumes are similar. Such differences suggest that the US and the Mexican governments may want to focus on bringing migrant workers who are living in Las Vegas into the US financial system. In Chicago and other cities, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Mexican consulate have sponsored Finance Festivals in conjunction with local banks, inviting Spanish-speakers to request official ID documents and open new accounts. And the costs of sending money to Mexico from these cities is lower. The role of the regulator Getting banks to share clearing houses and proprietary payment systems, among themselves and with other intermediaries, like financial cooperatives, is tricky. There are ways that central banks can encourage cooperation, however. Regulation (and the threat of sanctions) are important, but concerted effort and moral suasion, according to Cirasino, are usually effective. Beyond these infrastructure issues, regulators are essential to the development of more competitive and trustworthy systems. Dilip Ratha (DECPG) and Jose de Luna-Martinez (FSE), who are surveying central banks and money transfer agents, have found that there are many different players in the remittances business and, as Ratha explains: “Regulation varies widely depending on the type of business and specific services they provide.” Harmonizing the licensing or registration requirements, the reporting rules, and the foreign exchange controls that are applied to the various operators of money transfer services would spur more competition. Requiring transfer agents to divulge fees and commissions in a standardized way would also help. These issues and others will be treated by a joint World Bank—Bank for International Settlements Task Force, which is in the process of developing general principals for remittance systems policies and oversight, and includes central banks in both predominantly sender and receiver countries. In addition to providing for competition and efficiency, regulators on both sides of the borders share responsibility for protecting the consumers of remittance services and complying with international anti-money laundering standards. Involving financial services providers On the distribution side, information about the volumes of remittance flows has motivated Mexican banks to set up minibranches in some areas, where they offer a range of savings and credit services to clients receiving remittances. Places that receive less volume may be unattractive to commercial banks but appeal to specialized micro finance institutions (MFIs). With Bank support, the government of Mexico is building the capacity of financial cooperatives to handle remittances and provide other financial services, especially in rural areas. In some other cases, MFIs or their umbrella institutions, including the ICICI, in India; the Equity Building Society, in Kenya; and the World Council of Credit Unions, have forged alliances with national or international banks or transfer agents such as MoneyGram and Western Union. These arrangements allow the MFIs to distribute remittances as agents or sub-agents of other financial institutions, and to cross sell their products to recipients. Forging agreements between MFIs and international money transfer agents is a promising way to extend the reach of the remittances distribution network, and add to their value by providing financial services to recipients. There are a number of challenges and policy considerations involved in developing MFIs to act as remittance distributors, however. CGAP is preparing a note on strategic and operational issues related to the AccessFinance 4 incorporation of MFIs into money transfer networks that will explore some of these specific issues. Remote areas that receive low volumes of funds or have too few recipients to support even the most efficient MFI will require more innovative solutions, perhaps including some form of government-sponsored service provision, potentially through post offices. This may be the case in many parts of Vietnam, says Hernández-Coss. panel of sitting legislators from Mexico, Nicaragua, Thailand and China provided insights into the legislative process, based on a variety of experiences. For example, Mexico passed comprehensive legislation for credit reporting in 2002 which has provided a much needed legal and regulatory framework for this activity. In Thailand, a law for credit reporting which became effective in 2003 provided for such severe criminal penalties in cases of data errors that both private bureaus suspended operations for several months until modified regulations could be issued. The legislators as well as public and private sector participants also contributed to a spirited discussion on a new Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) for credit reporting, which is being developed jointly by FSE and the Bank’s Legal Department. These principles and guidelines received wide praise and will be helpful in systematizing reviews of credit reporting in future Bank and IMF financial sector missions, as well as provide needed guidance to policy makers on this topic. The materials presented at the “Public Policy for Credit Reporting Systems: Strengthening Public—Private Dialogue and Partnership” conference listed below can be accessed at http://www.creditreporting2004.com. Facilitating productive investment at the last mile The role of government is better understood when it comes to ensuring safer, more competitive, and transparent remittance flows, and in facilitating access to complimentary financial services. Strategies for maximizing development impact at the last mile are less clear. With better information, however, there are some specific actions that governments can take to enhance productive investment in recipient communities. Targeting scarce public funds for transportation and energy infrastructure to areas that receive high volumes of remittance payments may be appropriate. Local economic development initiatives and targeted improvements to the local investment climate, like one-stop shops for business regulation at the municipal level, for example, could also help boost the economic punch from remittance flows. One reason why coming up with specific recommendations is difficult, however, is because oftentimes the data just isn’t there. Credit Reporting continued from page 1 The event was co-hosted by the People’s Bank of China and organized jointly with the bi-annual international private consumer credit reporting conference. One of the key public—private issues in many countries, including China, is the relative roles to be assumed by public and private credit registries. In one of the conference’s first sessions, these relative roles were discussed in the context of the Chilean experience, where the public credit registry worked in combination with private credit bureaus to develop large positive files and broad-based credit reporting. The value of public credit registry data for banking supervision was also explored. Recent Bank research has shown that public registry data can help to provide a type of ratings framework for developing appropriate norms, regulations and risk-based capital and provisioning levels in line with Basel II. Credit reporting mechanisms and applications to improve access to finance for SMEs and microfinance clients were also presented. The conference was unique in focusing on the importance of consumer outreach and education throughout the two day event, by showing examples of TV videos produced in China, Colombia and the U.S., to educate consumers on their credit reports. In the case of Colombia, a private credit registry, Datacredito, paid to include the issue of credit reporting in the story line of Francisco el Matemático—a popular Colombian soap opera. Datacredito’s goal was to educate a broad segment of the Colombian society, including lower-income consumers, about the role of a credit report in credit decisions and to show them how to request copies of their reports, and challenge and remove errors. Additional sessions looked at the legal and normative foundations needed for safe and proper treatment of credit data. A Presentations Reporting Around the World Margaret Miller Credit Registers: a Tool for Improved Bank Risk Regulation and Supervision Gerard Caprio Using Credit Register Data in the Supervisory Process Paulo Marullo Credit Information System—SCR Cornelio Farias Pimentel The Development of Credit Reporting in Public and Private Sector in Chile Gustavo Arriagada The Belgian Public Credit Registers Jean Hilgers Equifax/Chile Public Private Partnership William R. Phinney New Battlegrounds for Credit Reporting Regulation in the United States Peggy Twohig Impact of Bank Secrecy Laws on the Development of Credit Reporting David Medine History of the Credit Bureaus in Thailand Paiboon Upatising Small Business Scoring Cheri St. John AccessFinance 5 International Experiences with Business Credit Information David Emery Credit Reporting and Financing Constraints for Small Firms Nataliya Mylenko Micro Finance and Credit Information Sharing: Emerging Trends & Key Issues Lisa Taber Study about the utility of sharing information between the different financing providers in Nicaragua Lilian Simbaqueba Credit Reporting by Micro Lending Institutions in South Africa Frank Lensia Microfinance Information Sharing Initiatives in West and North Africa Sarah Tsien Building an Affordable Homeownership Market: The United States Experience Jim Carr Reaching the customer and the public Making new opportunities work 2001–2004 Ignacio Duran Microfinance in Africa: Experience and Lessons from Selected African Countries. The paper supports the view that microfinance institutions, complement effectively the banking sector in extending financial services and successfully draw on the rich experience of community-based development and preexisting informal methods of financial intermediation in Africa. IMF Working Paper, by Anupam Basu, Rodolphe Blavy, Murat Yulek. September 2004. http://finsec.worldbank.org/assets/images/AfricaMicrofinance.pdf Principle and Practices for Regulating and Supervising Microfinance. This publication is aimed at bank supervisory authorities interested in or charged with developing a regulatory and supervisory framework for microfinance. InterAmerican Development Bank, by Tor Jansson, Ramón Rosales, Glenn Westley. September 2004. http://www.iadb.org/sds/doc/ principlenpract.pdf Financial Sector Development: A Pre-Requisite for Growth and Poverty Reduction? New DFID research indicates that the unmet demand for financial services cannot be addressed by microfinance alone. It explains why the financial sector is so important to growth and poverty reduction, what the policy implications are, and why microfinance is not enough. Department for International Development (DFID), June 2004. http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/fsdbriefingnote.pdf Breakouts Work Group A: Motivating Lenders to Share Their Data Work Group B: Including Data From Beyond the Regulated Financial Sectors in Credit Reports Work Group C: Preventing Abuses Work Group D: Private Linkage in Credit Reporting—Can public/ private interact in ways mutually beneficial? ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES Role of Microfinance in the Household Reconstruction Process in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This note presents summary findings from the study conducted within ImpAct project2 on the role of micro-enterprise lending in the household reconstruction process during 1996–2002 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By Michal Matul and Caroline Tsilikounas. January 2004. http://www.ids.ac.uk/impact/Publications/PartnerPublications/MFC_SN6.pdf EVENTS Upcoming: Conferences on Basel II for SMEs: The future of access to finance for SMEs. A series of 60 conferences to help SMEs understand the impact of Basle II rules on the financial environment and take appropriate actions. September 2004 to July 2005. Conference Calendar: http://www.sme-basel2.com/index. php?id=153 RECENT PUBLICATIONS Microfinance Regulation—Lessons from Benin, Ghana and Tanzania. This article identifies key issues and lessons about how the overall regulatory framework affects the ability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) to become more marketoriented and integrated with the financial system. The World Bank, October 2004. http://www.worldbank.org/afr/findings/english/find243.pdf The cornerstone of the MicroFinance Network. Annual conference attended by the Executive Directors of many of the most advanced microfinance institutions in the world, the conference is a learning opportunity for participants. Arusha, Tanzania on November 8–12, 2004. http://www.bellanet.org/partners/mfn/ Savings & Loans Cooperatives—Best Practices. This Conference will present an empirical perspective of the cooperative sector. Experimented professionals from the Financial Institutions’ administration will focus on key issues, trends, and best practices in the cooperative sector. Organized by WOCCU(World Council of Credit Unions) and DGRV(German Co-operative and Raiffeisen Confederation). Mexico, November 18–19, 2004. http://www.dgrv.org/publish/docs2/Invitacion090904rev.pdf The Scaling-Up of Microfinance in Bangladesh: Determinants, Impact, and Lessons. This paper describes the factors that led to the scaling-up of microcredit in Bangladesh, the impact this has had on the poor, future challenges in Bangladesh and possible lessons for other countries. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, by Hassan Zaman. September 2004. http://finsec.worldbank.org/assets/images/BangladeshMicrofinance.pdf AccessFinance 6 ILO Offering 2-week Course on Managing BDS Providers for Increased Impact. Course to improve the effectiveness of enterprise development organizations providing business development services (BDS) to micro, small and medium enterprises. Arusha, Tanzania, on December 6–17, 2004. http://intranet.itcilo.it/Calendar/Courses.nsf/CourseListNew?OpenForm&Regio n=Inter-regional&Area=Enterprise*Development The South African Credit Information System. The principles characteristics of a well functioning credit information system. By Ashina Singh, May 2004. http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/sar/sa.nsf/ Attachments/SinghPt/$File/Srilankappt+1-Singh-new.pdf Development of Credit Reporting Around the World. Role of Credit Registries in Financial Markets. The World Bank, Development Research Group, By Leora Klapper, May, 2004. http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/sar/sa.nsf/Attachments/LeoraKlapper/$File/ Leora+Klapper.pdf Past: Seminar: Promising Practices in Rural Finance. Share findings of a research project on emerging best practices in the delivery of rural financial services in six Latin American and Caribbean countries: Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Peru. InterAmerican Development Bank, Washington DC, October 2004. http://www.iadb.org/sds/mic/publication/publication_159_1595_e.htm Information Sharing among Competing Microfinance Providers. This paper examines the private information sharing incentives of MFIs under two alternative formulations: one where the MFI seeks to maximize the welfare of its borrowers; and another where it seeks to maximize the volume of its lending, or ‘throughput’. By Sanjay Jain and Ghazala Mansuri, May 2004. http://www.iue.it/FinConsEU/Papers2004/MFICompetitionJainMansuri.pdf CREDIT INFORMATION NEWS And the Survey Says...Consumers are Unaware of Credit Scores. Survey shows a majority of consumers are unaware of their own credit scores, and the ways in which companies and organizations are using those scores to evaluate individuals as prospective customers, employees or tenants. Compliance Headquarters, CCH Group, Inc, by Sarah Borchersen-Keto, September 2004. http://www.complianceheadquarters.com/Lending/ Lending_Articles/9_22_04.html A Guide to Greater Credit Data Sharing. The Hong Kong Association of Banks. http://www.dahsing.com/dsb/rbd/doc/dsb_oth_data_sharing_e.PDF Credit Scoring—How successful is credit scoring in microfinance? Using the scoring technology to analyze historical client data, identify links between client characteristics and behavior, and predict several types of client behavior. CGAP Staff and eChange, by Daniel G. Salazar, LLC, 2004. http://www.microfinancegateway.org/files/18047_CGAP_Credit_Scoring. pdf?PHPSESSID=50abbe3cf271024cd2b0e079602579d1 BAP, rural banks to start sharing data on debtors. The Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) and the Rural Bank Association of the Philippines (RBAP) will finally start sharing information on delinquent borrowers through the former’s credit bureau. Yehey Finance. By Ruby Anne M. Rubio, October 2004. http://finance.yehey.com/home_full.asp?id=25562 Scoring Arrears at a Microlender in Bolivia. Can scoring models help microlenders in poor countries as much as they have helped credit-card lenders in rich countries? By Mark Schreiner, April, 2004. http://www.microfinance.com/English/Papers/ Bolivia_Scoring_Arrears.pdf Call for transparency in banking. Credit information sharing and a culture of transparency in the banking sector are a must for ensuring the stability of the industry, said the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The Hindu, October 2004. http://www. hindu.com/2004/10/13/stories/2004101304990400.htm RECENT PUBLICATIONS A Decomposition of Screening and Incentive Effects in Credit Information Systems. Study illustrates how credit information systems mitigate both adverse selection and moral hazard problems in credit markets through “screening” and “incentive” effects. By Craig McIntosh and Bruce Wydick, September 2004. http://are.berkeley.edu/courses/DEVELWORK/papers/Theory.pdf Credit Risk: So Far So Good. After operational risk, credit risk is the biggest challenge facing the industry—large-scale borrower defaults may even force a bank into bankruptcy. By Mitali Kalita, August, 2004. http://www.accountancy.com.pk/articles.asp?id=144 EVENTS Past: Fourth Consumer Credit Reporting World Conference. This event presented an opportunity for credit bureau executives to share best practices, industry knowledge, issues affecting countries and regions, and to discuss the role of credit bureaus around the globe. Organized by Huaxia International Business Credit Consulting Co., Ltd. in conjunction with the Consumer Data Industry Association—CDIA (US) and Association of Consumer Credit Information Suppliers—ACCIS (Europe). Beijing, China, September 26–28. http://www.worldcreditconference2004.com/ Credit Reporting Systems Worldwide. Seminar on Credit Reporting System and China’s Economy. Organized by the People’s Bank of China and the World Bank. Shanghai, China, May 18, 2004. http://www.pbc.gov.cn/zhengxinguanli/yanjiucankao/ppt/3.ppt Improving Credit Information, Bank Regulation and Supervision: On the role and design of Public Credit Registries. This paper analyzes how data in public credit registries can be used both to strengthen bank supervision and to improve the quality of credit analysis by financial institutions. By Giovanni Majnoni, Margaret Miller, Nataliya Mylenko and Andrew Powell. June, 2004. http://www.utdt.edu/~apowell/MMNP_June.pdf AccessFinance 7 Conference On Credit Bureau Development In South Asia The workshop focused on promoting the development of credit information systems in the region. Organized jointly by The World Bank, Central Bank, and Credit Information Bureau of Sri Lanka, May 10–11, 2004. http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/sar/sa.nsf/ General/C6251A4FD113E1E385256EAE005352A0?OpenDocument REMITTANCES NEWS The Remittance Lifeline. It is no secret these days that the funding of development has gone private. BBC News Online, by Jeremy Scott-Joynt, March, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ business/3516390.stm PAYMENT SYSTEMS RECENT PUBLICATIONS Remittances at USAID. Donor activities & areas of concern, August 2004. http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_partnerships/gda/ RemittancesatUSAID.doc NEWS Vienna has opted for payment by mobile phone rather than install parking meters. Residents allowed to pay for any of its short-term parking spaces by mobile phone, under what it calls its M-Parking system. The Guardian, October 2004. http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,,1331529,00.html RECENT PUBLICATIONS http://www.bis.org/publ/cpss62.pdf Financial Access for Immigrants: The Case of Remittances Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke at the Financial Access for Immigrants: Learning from Diverse Perspectives conference. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, April, 2004. http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/200404162/default.htm Challenges facing the global payments system. Some of the major priorities over the medium term in strengthening the safety and soundness and the operational resilience of the global payments and settlement system, SIBOS 2004 Atlanta Conference. By Timothy F Geithner. http://www.bis.org/review/r041020a.pdf Lessons from the US-Mexico Remittances Corridor on Shifting from Informal to Formal Transfer Systems. The World Bank. By Raúl Hernández-Coss. November, 2004. http://www1. worldbank.org/finance/html/amlcft/docs/Rem_CS/US-Mex_CS_Eng.pdf EVENTS Upcoming: RFID in Contactless Payment Systems. Innovative Solutions for Delivering Customer Convenience, Reducing Cash Handling and Increasing Per Capita Spending. Atlanta, GA, December 7–8, 2004. http://www.iqpc.com/cgi-bin/templates/document.html?topic=233&ev ent=5740&document=45893&slauID=5& Sending Money Home: Remittances to Latin America from the US, 2004. The information contained in this survey presents the first detailed state-by-state analysis of remittances from the United States to Latin America. Inter-American Development Bank, Multilateral Investment Fund, May, 2004. http://www.iadb. org/mif/v2/files/map2004survey.pdf Sending Money Home: Remittance to Latin America and The Caribbean. Held by the Inter-American Development Bank, Multilateral Investment Fund. Lima, Peru, May 2004. http://www.iadb.org/mif/v2/files/StudyPE2004eng.pdf Past: SIBOS 2004. At the Sibos 2004 conference attendees had the opportunity to exchange views about how communities can best ensure sustainable growth despite increasing risks and renewed emphasis on trust. Atlanta, 11–15 October 2004. http://www.swift.com/index.cfm?Item_id=5569 EVENTS Upcoming: Sending Money Home: An Analysis Of The Remittance Market Between The United States And The Dominican Republic. Sponsored by the Multilateral Investment Fund—Inter-American Development Bank at the Columbia University, NY, November 23, 2004. http://www.iadb.org/mif/v2/files/agendaREM_NY_Nov04.pdf Past: Payments in the Americas. Hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, focused on the burgeoning remittance market and the policy objective of facilitating electronic payments and reducing costs to consumers. Atlanta, October 7–8, 2004. http://www.frbatlanta.org/invoke.cfm?objectid=C3FA0FAF-05F6-83C3-B429D1 3375ED8D1F&method=display Finance Forum 2004—Presentations. Sharing Best Practices: Payment Systems Reform. The reform of Payment and Securities Settlement Systems (PSSS) poses serious challenges for policymakers and market participants, and the Bank has played an important role recently in helping clients make informed decisions about this process. World Bank, Financial Sector, Washington DC, September 2004. http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/ banking/finsecpolicy/financeforum2004/overview.html Supervising the technology risks. Conference on Electronic Safety and Soundness. The risks that the financial sector faces when integrating electronic payment methods. 2004 Asia Pacific Regional Conference, held in Singapore. May 2004. http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/html/FinancialSectorWeb.nsf/ SearchGeneral?openform&E-Security/E-Finance&Conferences International Conference on Remittances: Development Impact, Opportunities for the Financial Sector and Future Prospects. First global meeting of its type on this topic and attracted over 100 participants from 42 countries. Organized by The Department for International Development (DFID) and the World Bank. London, October 2003. http://www.livelihoods.org/hot_topics/migration/remittances.html AccessFinance 8 Shaping the Remittances Market by Shifting to Formal Systems. Organized by The APEC Alternative Remittance Systems (ARS) Working Group. Tokyo, Japan, June 2004. http://www1.worldbank.org/finance/html/amlcft/ Tokyo%20ARS%20symposium.htm Remittances and Microfinance: Colombian case study and best practices in the region. Held by the IADB, Multilateral Investment Fund. Cartagena, Colombia, September 8, 2004. http://www.iadb.org/mif/v2/files/agendaREM_CO_Sep04.doc AccessFinance is a newsletter published by the Financial Sector Vice-Presidency of the World Bank. For comments and contributions, or to subscribe to AccessFinance, please send an email to tfiakm@worldbank.org.