Over the past decade, financial consumer protection has become an increasingly mainstream priority for policymakers. A strong consumer protection regime is key to ensuring that expanded access to financial services benefits consumers, enabling them to make well-informed decisions on how best to...

Financial consumer protection sets clear rules of conduct for financial firms regarding their retail customers. It aims to ensure that consumers: 1) receive information to allow them to make informed decisions, 2) are not subject to unfair or deceptive practices, and 3) have access to recourse...

Over the last decade, consumer credit in the Russian Federation has expanded from almost nothing to 9.2 percent of GDP in 2008, at 84 percent average annual growth in 2003-2008 year for five years. Yet, the increases have been uneven throughout the Russian population: more than 40 percent are...

In 2010, over 92 percent of the assets in the Nicaraguan financial system were concentrated in the banking sector, while microfinance managed over 5 percent, and all the remaining segments covered less than 3 percent. Starting in the late 1990s and until 2007, the microfinance sector in...

The Diagnostic Review of Consumer Protection and Financial Capability in Latvia is the ninth report in a World Bank-sponsored pilot program to assess consumer protection in financial services in developing and middle-income countries. The publication of the Diagnostic Review for Latvia aims to...