LAUNCH OF D.I.C.R.I.

The Digital Informal Credit Research Initiative (DICRI) is formally launched today, 13 April 2026.

DICRI is established as an independent research platform dedicated to the systematic study of informal and platform-based credit, digital debt enforcement infrastructures, and the evolving governance of finance beyond traditional legal frameworks. As digital platforms increasingly shape access to credit, repayment structures, behavioural incentives, and enforcement mechanisms, they generate financial ecosystems that operate at the edges - and sometimes outside - conventional regulatory models. Understanding these transformations requires new conceptual tools, comparative research, and sustained interdisciplinary engagement.

DICRI is conceived not as a single project, but as a long-term research programme and institutional hub. It aims to develop high-level theoretical work, comparative empirical inquiry, and collaborative funding initiatives addressing the restructuring of (informal) credit governance in the digital age. The Initiative will organise workshops, produce scholarly outputs, and facilitate dialogue between legal scholars, political economists, digital governance researchers, and financial regulation specialists.

At its core, DICRI seeks to advance a more precise analytical vocabulary for describing how credit, technology, and power intersect in contemporary digital financial systems.

Researchers working on informal credit, digital finance, algorithmic governance, debt enforcement, financial vulnerability, or related fields are warmly invited to engage with the Initiative. Expressions of interest in voluntary affiliation, collaborative projects, workshops, or joint funding applications are welcome. DICRI is conceived as an open intellectual platform committed to rigorous scholarship and constructive exchange.

Further announcements regarding upcoming activities will follow in the coming weeks. Subscribe to receive updates on research activities, events, and publications.