Michelle Kelly-Louw - Böcker

Effective regulation of consumer credit in modern society is an ever-changing challenge. As new forms of credit emerge in free societies, regulation often lags behind. This volume explores contemporary problems related to the regulation of consumer credit in market economies with a focus on credit extended to the most vulnerable and poorest members of the community. Written by experts in the field of consumer credit regulation from Europe, North America, Australia and South Africa, the book examines some of the most important consumer credit issues facing consumers today and proposes innovative ways to protect the consumer interest in those markets.

The book addresses the current challenges faced by financial consumers in the context of enormous technological developments. This edited collection covers safeguarding financial consumers, encompassing topics such as financial inclusion, data protection, and consumer over-indebtedness. Addressing specific issues related to vulnerable consumer groups and the increasing digitisation of financial services, it grapples with the emerging challenge demanding that consumers possess technological literacy.The book offers a distinct new perspective, going beyond the traditional understanding of financial inclusion, which typically only considers the possession of a bank account. Instead, it explores new dimensions, including the obstacles consumers face in obtaining credit, establishing a credit history, and coping with issues such as being blacklisted. The book explores diverse strategies for enhancing financial inclusion, such as leveraging data, and open banking. It also scrutinises the pursuit of credit fairness and examines methods to either mitigate or effectively address over-indebtedness, a persistent and formidable challenge for financial consumers.The book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, and governmental organisations in the field of finance law and the law of emerging technologies.Chapters 1 and 2 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license.