Financial Privacy: An International Comparison of Credit Reporting Systems

Credit reporting agencies collect and compile highly sensitive information on the millions of consumers in credit markets throughout the world and also increasingly across a variety of industries, such as insurance, retail and telecommunications. In this revised edition, Nicola Jentzsch provides an in-depth analysis of the economics and regulation of financial privacy and a comparative overview of credit reporting systems in the US and the 27 member states of the European Union. She offers an authoritative evaluation of the design and functioning of dual systems consisting of public credit registers and private credit reporting agencies. Drawing on theories of information and privacy as well as competition in information markets, she discusses the history and institutions of credit reporting. Finally, on an empirical level, the book assesses the economic effects of credit reporting on credit markets.