We use an audit methodology where auditors ask for tax saving instruments from banks and document the disclosures made on product features at the time of sale. In private sector banks with high sales incentives, the high commission product is recommended. In public sector banks, where there are...

Mortgage markets and their regulation have been a focus of increasingly polarized political debates, reflected in an academic literature showing the impact of partisan politics on financial markets. Since the financial crisis, states have played an increasing role in regulating mortgage...

Now that the stock market's streak skyward has hit the five-year mark, more financial industry experts feel justified in slamming Americans for not saving enough money. Are we really making the mistakes these people describe? In fact our big mistake may be paying any attention at all to the...

Homeowners hold a large part of their wealth in real estate and finance it with (recourse) mortgage debt. Mortgage insurance is a means to insure wealth risk that emerges from the liability to repay in case of default. However, it is a well-known fact that individuals are overconfident in the...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a data point update of its ongoing analyses of overdrafts. We review the report and provide commentary on its findings, methodology and the inferences of this update, specifically the potential to further restrict debit card overdrafts. We...

A distinct set of disadvantages experienced by black Americans increases their likelihood of experiencing negative financial shocks, decreases their ability to mitigate the impact of such shocks, and ultimately results in debt collection cases being far more common in black neighborhoods than in...

Borrowing decisions affect most households, with large stakes and implications for subfields as varied as macroeconomics and industrial organization. I review theoretical and empirical work on household debt: its prevalence, level, growth, and composition, as well as various measures of consumer...

This paper assesses the case for promoting financial education in Asia. It argues that the benefits of investing in financial education can be substantial. Data are limited, but indicate low financial literacy scores for selected Asian countries. As economies develop, access to financial...

Fraud alerts — initial fraud alerts, extended fraud alerts, and credit freezes — help protect consumers from the consequences of identity theft. At the same time, they may impose costs on lenders, credit bureaus, and, in some instances, consumers. We analyze a unique data set of anonymized...

This paper discusses the status of financial inclusion, education, and literacy in Azerbaijan as well as measures to foster the development of SMEs, which currently have inadequate access to financial resources. The primary policy challenge faced by the government of Azerbaijan is defining its...