Abstract
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 2046-2064 |
Journal | Environment and Planning A |
Volume | 49 |
Issue number | 9 |
Early online date | 12 Jun 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Sep 2017 |
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Bibliographical note
This work was supported by Big Society Capital, Citi Community Development, Community Investment Coalition and Unity Trust BankKeywords
- Financial geographies
- personal lending
- financial exclusion
- data disclosure
Cite this
Banking on lending: Data disclosure and geographies of UK personal lending markets. / Henry, Nick; Pollard, Jane; Sissons, Paul; Ferreira, Jennifer; Coombes, Mike.
In: Environment and Planning A, Vol. 49, No. 9, 01.09.2017, p. 2046-2064.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Banking on lending: Data disclosure and geographies of UK personal lending markets
AU - Henry, Nick
AU - Pollard, Jane
AU - Sissons, Paul
AU - Ferreira, Jennifer
AU - Coombes, Mike
N1 - This work was supported by Big Society Capital, Citi Community Development, Community Investment Coalition and Unity Trust Bank
PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - In 2013 the UK Government announced that seven of the nation’s largest banks had agreed to publish their lending data at the local level across Great Britain. The release of such area based lending data has been welcomed by advocacy groups and policy makers keen to better understand and remedy geographies of financial exclusion. This paper makes three contributions to debates about financial exclusion. First, it provides the first exploratory spatial analysis of the personal lending data made available; it scrutinises the parameters and robustness of the dataset and evaluates the extent to which the data increases transparency in UK personal lending markets. Second, it uses the data to provide a geographical overview of patterns of personal lending across Great Britain. Third, it uses this analysis to revisit the analytical and political limitations of ‘open data’ in addressing the relationship between access to finance and economic marginalisation. Although a binary policy imaginary of ‘inclusion-exclusion’ has historically driven advocacy for data disclosure, recent literatures on financial exclusion generate the need for more complex and variegated understandings of economic marginalisation. The paper questions the relationship between transparency and data disclosure, the policy push for financial inclusion, and patterns of indebtedness and economic marginalisation in a world where ‘fringe finance’ has become mainstream. Drawing on these literatures, this analysis suggests that data disclosure, and the transparency it affords, is a necessary but not sufficient tool in understanding the distributional implications of variegated access to credit.
AB - In 2013 the UK Government announced that seven of the nation’s largest banks had agreed to publish their lending data at the local level across Great Britain. The release of such area based lending data has been welcomed by advocacy groups and policy makers keen to better understand and remedy geographies of financial exclusion. This paper makes three contributions to debates about financial exclusion. First, it provides the first exploratory spatial analysis of the personal lending data made available; it scrutinises the parameters and robustness of the dataset and evaluates the extent to which the data increases transparency in UK personal lending markets. Second, it uses the data to provide a geographical overview of patterns of personal lending across Great Britain. Third, it uses this analysis to revisit the analytical and political limitations of ‘open data’ in addressing the relationship between access to finance and economic marginalisation. Although a binary policy imaginary of ‘inclusion-exclusion’ has historically driven advocacy for data disclosure, recent literatures on financial exclusion generate the need for more complex and variegated understandings of economic marginalisation. The paper questions the relationship between transparency and data disclosure, the policy push for financial inclusion, and patterns of indebtedness and economic marginalisation in a world where ‘fringe finance’ has become mainstream. Drawing on these literatures, this analysis suggests that data disclosure, and the transparency it affords, is a necessary but not sufficient tool in understanding the distributional implications of variegated access to credit.
KW - Financial geographies
KW - personal lending
KW - financial exclusion
KW - data disclosure
U2 - 10.1177/0308518X17713992
DO - 10.1177/0308518X17713992
M3 - Article
VL - 49
SP - 2046
EP - 2064
JO - Environment and Planning A
JF - Environment and Planning A
SN - 0308-518X
IS - 9
ER -