one question on interest rate caps and pricing limits on loans (GFICPS 2017);<sup>7</sup> and with Reifner et al. (2010), who collected comprehensive data on interest rate caps in the EU. We gave preeminence to citations to laws and regulations, creating a repository for these as a complement to our survey. In total, we received responses from 108 countries, which were provided by 91 central banks and financial supervisory authorities, 20 local banking associations and 9 World Bank financial sector experts. These 108 countries represent 88 percent of the global GDP and the sample is balanced in terms of levels of income and geographical representation. The information from the responses refers to 2019. The full list of surveyed countries is presented in the annexes.

IRCs are common in countries across different income levels and legal systems though some regional differences emerge. Table 1 presents a general overview of IRCs in the 108 countries grouped by region, income level and legal system.<sup>8</sup> A total of 63 countries responded that they have IRCs in place. Both high income countries and low and middle income countries show a similar prevalence of IRCs at about 60 percent of their respective surveyed samples.<sup>9</sup> This even distribution across income levels is also reflected in a GDP-weighted average of 66 percent of the sample with IRCs, though this hinges on the fact that China had unwound its IRCs by 2019 and our survey does not consider the recent policy response to Covid-19.<sup>10</sup> The share of countries with _de jure_ IRCs also remains roughly unaltered when countries are divided according to their legal system, though we observe a relatively higher prevalence of IRCs in common law countries.<sup>11</sup> Differences appear when the regional dimension is introduced, with a bigger fraction of high income relative to low and middle income countries in Europe & Central Asia reporting IRCs, while the opposite is observed in East Asia & Pacific. In general, IRCs are more popular in regions such as South Asia, the Americas, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

**Table 1. Number of Countries with IRCs (total countries surveyed in parentheses)**

|Region|High<br>Income|Low & Middle<br>Income|Civil Law|Common<br>Law|Mixed<br>Systems|Total|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|East Asia & Pacific|2 (6)|4 (7)|2 (3)|2 (3)|2 (7)|6 (13)|
|Europe & Central Asia|15 (23)|7 (15)|20 (34)|2 (3)|0 (1)|22 (38)|
|Middle East & North Africa|1 (3)|1 (5)|-|-|2 (8)|2 (8)|
|North & South America|8 (11)|11 (17)|9 (15)|9 (11)|1 (2)|19 (28)|
|South Asia|-|3 (4)|-|-|3 (4)|3 (4)|
|Sub-Saharan Africa|0 (1)|11 (16)|1 (1)|-|10 (16)|11 (17)|
|Total|26 (44)|37 (64)|32 (53)|13 (17)|18 (38)|63 (108)|

7 Question D.13 in the GFICPS 2017 was: “Are financial institutions subject to explicit caps on interest rates or other methods that limit loan pricing, e.g. maximum profit margins or maximum spread?” 8 Regional and income level classifications are consistent with the World Bank classification while legal origins are based on the JuriGLOBE database of the University of Ottawa.

9 We conducted a two-sample t test for equality of means by income group and found no statistically significant difference between high income and low and middle income economies.

10 China’s influence is even greater if the sample is weighted by deposit money banks' assets: these stand at 175 percent of the Chinese GDP and 29 percent of our full country sample (source: Global Financial Development Database).

11 Seventy-six percent of the countries under common law in our sample have IRCs. That is significantly higher (at 5%, one-tail) than countries with civil codes or mixed legal systems.

7