Data can influence decisions and shift power—and in emerging markets it is becoming a decisive factor in shaping access to credit, reducing uncertainty, and enabling economic growth.
In environments where information asymmetry has traditionally limited financial inclusion, the availability of reliable, structured data changes how institutions assess risk and offer opportunities to individuals and businesses. By making financial behavior more visible, data allows lending decisions to move away from being arbitrary—driven by relationships, collateral and wealth—toward more objective, risk-based approaches.
CRIF Talks, CRIF’s new podcast series exploring how innovation, sustainability, and data‑driven intelligence are reshaping financial systems around the world, addresses this topic in the episode Data as a Competitive Weapon in Emerging Markets. In the conversation, Davide Michele Meo, CRIF International Markets Senior Director, explains how better data availability—enabled by credit bureau infrastructures—supports more informed lending decisions and more transparent credit markets.
Evidence from emerging markets shows that when a credit bureau is introduced, access to credit can increase from as low as 5% to up to 45–60% over time.
