Challenge
The Syrian civil war led to the long-term displacement of more than 6 million Syrians to surrounding countries and Europe. While living as refugees, they pursued various livelihoods and, depending on the country, were able to access financial services. However, many returning refugees face difficulties obtaining credit in Syria because they cannot prove their credit repayment histories.
Solution
To facilitate their return and resumption of livelihoods in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime, while providing incentives to repay any outstanding debts in their country of refuge, the World Bank contracted Making Cents (first through a sub-contract to Bayan Consulting, then afterwards through a contract with the IFC) to study how to make Syrian credit histories “portable” between their countries of refuge and return. The primary objective of the study was to determine the feasibility and support needed to implement the three most viable and potentially replicable options for portability, namely cross-national transmission, private sector transmission, and financial institution-led transmission. The credit portability enhancement would enable credit information infrastructure in Jordan and Syria to better assist financial institutions to address: 1) background and creditworthiness verification (inability to conduct these checks limits banks financial products offer); and 2) identification verification (KYC, in the case there is two way transmission of data and supporting FDPs in country of asylum, ID verification compliance challenges for onboarding of FDP in country of asylum based on the basic documents). In Phase 1, Making Cents reviewed the records of past credit portability mechanisms and assessed options for the future. In Phase 2, Making Cents performed desk research and key informant interviews in Jordan and Syria to explore different portability mechanisms, ranging from government-to-government data transfer to individual transmission of credit reports, and develop implementation roadmaps.