About

Digital credit is increasingly embedded in everyday platforms. Buy Now, Pay Later schemes, app-based lending, and embedded finance are reshaping how credit is granted, structured, and enforced across jurisdictions.

The Digital Informal Credit Research Initiative (DICRI) is an independent policy and regulatory research platform dedicated to the study of informal and platform-based credit systems and the evolving governance of debt in digitally mediated financial environments.

As digital platforms increasingly structure access to credit, repayment schedules, behavioural incentives, and enforcement mechanisms, they generate financial ecosystems that operate partly within, partly beyond, and at times outside traditional regulatory frameworks. Enforcement is no longer confined to courts or licensed collectors; it is increasingly embedded in technical infrastructures, interface design, data analytics, and AI-enabled systems.

DICRI examines how these systems function, how they reshape financial vulnerability, and how they reorganise enforcement power. The Initiative focuses on structural dynamics rather than isolated misconduct, analysing how digital credit ecosystems are designed, optimised, and governed.

The Initiative combines legal analysis, political economy, and comparative research with a clear policy orientation. Its objectives include:

• Developing analytical frameworks for understanding digital informal credit

• Examining AI-enabled debt collection and behavioural optimisation

• Conducting comparative research across jurisdictions

• Contributing to regulatory and supervisory debates on digital financial governance

• Supporting informed public discussion on platform-based enforcement

DICRI is conceived as a long-term platform for policy-relevant research and comparative dialogue. Scholars, regulators, and practitioners working in related areas are invited to engage with the Initiative through voluntary affiliation, collaborative projects, and joint research activities.