Author: Elizabeth Bermeo
Publication date: November 2017
Published by: University of Bristol

Home credit, or commercial doorstep lending, is an industry, whose core business is offering small, short-term, unsecured cash loans using a network of agents to collect weekly repayments from customers' homes.

Although women’s higher probability to turn to doorstep lending has been acknowledged in academic and policy circles, little is known about whether the policy and regulatory framework governing home credit takes into account the female-oriented nature of the industry, and thus protects the rights and interests of women, the major users of this type of credit.

This research addresses two main questions: (1) To what extent is gender being integrated into the regulations and policies governing the UK home credit industry? (2) Does the UK financial services industry, especially the home credit industry, adhere to international principles to promote women’s financial empowerment?

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Women and high cost credit: a gender analysis of the UK home credit industry (PDF, 1,071kB)

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