FIGURE 3.8 In high-income OECD economies the high rate of credit card ownership may help explain why the share of adults with a new loan from a financial institution is not particularly high. Indeed, if adults who reported having used a credit card in the past 12 months are included with those who originated a new loan from a financial institution, this would increase the share with a new formal loan by up to 35 percentage points (figure 3.8). Many people use credit cards as a payment instrument and carry no credit balances, however, so this measure overstates the use of credit cards as a source of credit.

<!-- Start of picture text --> Origination of new formal loans and credit card use in<br>selected economies<br><!-- End of picture text --> <!-- Start of picture text --> Adults using credit source in the past year (%), 2014<br>60<br>40<br>Used credit card<br>20<br>but did not borrow formally<br>Borrowed formally<br>0<br>High-income Turkey Brazil Argentina<br>OECD<br>economies<br>Source: Global Findex database.<br><!-- End of picture text --> Among developing economies, three stand out for relatively high credit card use: Argentina, Brazil, and Turkey, where more than 20 percent of adults reported having used a credit card in the past 12 months. Including these adults with those who originated a new loan from a financial institution would increase the share with a new formal loan in these three countries by between 16 and 22 percentage points. (By comparison, the increase in other developing economies would typically be less than 10 percentage points.)

# How has borrowing changed over time?

> FIGURE 3.9

|Origination of new formal loans, 2011 and 2014<br>Adults borrowing from a fnancial institution in the past year (%)<br>FIGURE 3.9<br>11<br>12<br>18<br>11<br>East Asia & Pacifc<br>Europe & Central Asia<br>High-income OECD economies<br>Latin America & Caribbean<br>2011<br>**2014**|
|---|
|6<br>Middle East|
|South Asia<br>6|
|6<br>Sub-Saharan Africa|
|_Source:_Global Findex database.|

Between 2011 and 2014 the share of adults with a new loan from a financial institution remained relatively steady around the world (figure 3.9). But this global trend conceals differences across regions. The share of adults with a new formal loan increased in high-income OECD economies, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and SubSaharan Africa. Measures of household debt and, in particular, formal credit are sensitive to the business cycle and current economic factors, and the trend in the origination of new loans in these regions likely reflects the continued economic recovery in most of the world’s economies after the global financial crisis of 2008.

At the same time, the share of adults with a new formal loan decreased in South Asia, particularly in Bangladesh. In that country the share of adults with a new loan from a financial institution fell from 23 percent in 2011 to 10 percent in 2014.<sup>5</sup> Worldwide, the share of adults who reported borrowing from family or friends increased slightly between 2011 and 2014. This growth was driven primarily by the increase in South Asia, where the share who reported borrowing from this source rose from 19 percent to

> THE GLOBAL FINDEX DATABASE 50