Improving credit reporting systems in Mauritania (IFC-608449)

Countries
  • Mauritania
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
U
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
May 10, 2024
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Borrower information not provided at the time of disclosure
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Law and Government
  • Technical Cooperation
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Advisory Services
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
Not Disclosed
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Jul 19, 2024

Disclosed by Bank Jun 11, 2024


Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to bank provided information, the project has three components:

COMPONENT 1: Inception Assessment of the credit reporting system in Mauritania
The initial activity will consist of an inception study, that will assess the viability of operating a standalone private credit bureau (with the different available options) and conduct a gap analysis of the public credit registry, which will identify current gaps, benchmark the infrastructure with international best practices, and recommend needed enhancements capable to satisfy CBM’s future needs.

COMPONENT 2: Improve the credit reporting legal and regulatory framework in Mauritania.
The project will support CBM to develop a new credit reporting legal framework that would address the current constraints and put clarity on the respective roles of the credit bureau and the public credit registry.
1. High-level assessment of the overarching legal and regulatory environment for the operation of a private credit bureau: IFC will conduct a review of the legal and regulatory framework governing credit and financial sector operations in Mauritania. The activity will include a detailed analysis of the laws and regulations pertaining to data privacy, confidentiality, and data sharing (data sharing by financial institutions with third-party entities such as private credit bureaus).
2. Support CBM (and the Ministry of Finance) in the drafting of a standalone credit reporting legislation that would address the issues identified in the legal assessment. The new legislation will be conducive to strengthening the evolving credit reporting environment, define the authority and role of CBM in supervising the credit reporting sector, establish norms for non-regulated entities to participate in the credit bureau, and ensure the establishment of borrowers’ rights and protection of their data.
3. Assessment of the economic and financial viability/sustainability of a standalone privately operated bureau in the Mauritanian context (considering the small market size). If the assessment suggests that a separate private sector operation may not be viable, other approaches will be considered, that create a different mix of public/private contributions.
4. Capacity-building program for CBM and financial sector players: for CBM personnel, the plan is to build skills on the regulation and supervision of private credit bureaus (including in-class training sessions, as well as study tours). IFC will also organize study tours for CBM personnel in Morocco for in-depth learning about the delegation model and lessons learnt, so that replication to Mauritania can be facilitated. For financial sector players, the capacity-building efforts will aim at preparing them to be active contributors of reliable and complete data to the bureau. The objective is to encourage lenders to utilize the bureau services further with a view to improve access to credit in Mauritania.

COMPONENT 3: Enhance CBM’s public credit registry.
The project will provide technical assistance in the following areas:
1. Support CBM to develop a strategy for increasing the coverage of the public credit registry, e.g., the capacity to collect, process and disseminate – in a reliable and fully automated way – all types of loans, and publish complete, detailed credit histories/reports for longer periods (3–5-year history).
2. Build the capacity of CBM and users of the public credit registry. For CBM, the focus will be on training and building capacity of relevant departments on the use of the new services and functionalities developed. For the financial institutions, capacity building will target credit departments to enable them to integrate data collected from the public credit registry into their lending decisions.
3. In the event the initial feasibility assessment suggests that a standalone private sector bureau might not be viable from an economic and financial standpoint, the new public credit registry might be restructured to serve both the purpose of Central Bank supervision and the market as well.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

*Contact information not provided at the time of disclosure*

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries 

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org 

How it works

How it works