Article at a glance:

Wanted: Asian credit bureaus

Asian consumers have quickly developed a taste for plastic. But high growth rates for credit cards are triggering equally high default rates in many countries. Lenders are introducing more sophisticated credit risk practices but need to do more.

The take-away

Credit bureaus are an essential part of a sustainable consumer credit industry. But for them to work effectively, all lenders must share credit histories, and the shared information must reveal the good loans along with the bad.