highly fruitful. to a large extent, the use of nontraditional data, machine learning, and natural language processing in macroeconomics and for policy is only just in its infancy. in many cases, we are unsure of the efficacy or benefits of these approaches. coordination between statistical agencies and policymaking institutions will help us achieve our shared goal — a better understanding of the economy. to this end, the discussions on the use of big data and new techniques for central banking and on the possibilities for cooperation between private companies and government agencies should be particularly helpful. moreover, i strongly encourage you to continue your discussions after the conference ends and to seek opportunities for joint work so that we can further develop our understanding of big data and textual analysis. now i would like to invite the participants in the session on alternative data on inflation and the labor market to come to the podium. welcome to the federal reserve, and i wish you a successful two days. 1 / 1 bis central bankers'speeches

emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : introducing innovative services to meet credit needs in uganda speech by mr emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, at the yearend stakeholders ’ function and sharing of compuscan ’ s vision 2012, kampala, 8 december 2011. * * * the board of directors compuscan information technologies, managing director compuscan crb limited, representatives of the development partners ( word bank, kfw, giz ), representatives of the participating institutions ( pis ), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. i would like to welcome you all to this event to launch officially the compuscore and compuscan ’ s vision 2012. i would also like to thank the board of directors and management of compuscan crb for inviting me to preside over this function. credit markets are plagued by informational problems, and these problems are especially acute in developing economies. informational problems raise transactions costs, often to such an extent that potential borrowers are denied access to credit in the formal sector. the adverse consequences of informational imperfections for financial markets were analysed in the 1970s by joseph stiglitz and george akerlof ; work for which they received the nobel prize. the etymology of the word “ credit ” is the latin verb “ credere ” ; to trust or believe. unfortunately trust alone is rarely sufficient to ensure that a creditor will ever get her money back ; hence credit decisions must be made on the basis of accurate, reliable data. without such data creditors will be reluctant to risk their money. a key challenge for policy makers concerned with financial market development is how to design policy interventions which can mitigate informational imperfections and thus reduce their negative externalities. the kernel of the challenge is how to ensure that accurate and reliable information about those which wish to raise finance can be acquired in a cost effective manner by those who provide finance and bear the risk of doing so. credit reference bureaux provide an institutional solution to the problem. a well functioning credit reference bureau mitigates information related market failures because it is compulsory for all participants in the credit markets to provide and share information, in circumstances where they may have private incentives not to do so. furthermore, the pooling of information in a credit reference bureau reduces the social costs of acquiring information. this was the motivation for the bank of uganda, with the support of development partners – kfw, gtz