Online Intermediation and the Terms of Consumer Credit

Date 14/03/2014

Gustav Alfelt, Marieke Bos and Kasper Roszbach analyse data from a Swedish internet-based marketplace for consumer credit that provides more detailed information on uncollateralised lending to Swedish households and the conditions governing this lending. The internet-based marketplace matches loan applications of individuals with financial institutions that subsequently are able to make loans offers. The authors describe how the system works and analyse how loan conditions and loan volumes vary as a result of differences between the borrowers. The size of their incomes, for example, is a major factor in determining the interest rates the borrowers are offered. Whether these differences are also of significance to the monetary policy transmission mechanism and other aspects of economic policy is an open question that requires further analysis.