Influence of credit information sharing on customer borrowing behaviour in Kenyan Commercial Banks: a case of HFC Bank digital lending

Abstract

There has been an increase in the level of competitiveness within the Kenyan financial sector and from external players such as Financial Technology and Telecommunication firms. This has led to increasing technological innovation in the banking industry, which has resulted in the development of digital product provision. Currently, HFC Bank runs the HFC Whizz app, which is a digital lending platform. With more clients on the platform, the bank has been leveraging on credit information sharing to enhance the repayment performance. However, there has been limited examination of how credit information sharing influences the borrowing behaviour on the platform. The current study examined how credit information sharing influences borrowing behaviour among digital customers. This study specifically examined how demographic information, character information, and repayment information sharing influence borrowing behaviour. This study was anchored on the information asymmetry theory. A descriptive research design was applied on a population of 58,000 active customers on the platform and 5-senior managers of the HFC Whizz platform. The sample size for the study was 397 respondents. The study utilized primary data using a structured questionnaire, with a pretest of the research instrument conducted on 39 of the sample respondents. Data analysis involved content analysis, descriptive analysis, and inferential analysis. The collected research data was analyzed using charts, tables, and themes in line with the study objectives. A 64% response rate was received from 397 participants. The study concludes that credit information sharing has a significant relationship with the borrowing behaviour of digital borrowers. The study finds that demographic information sharing and repayment history sharing had a positive and significant effect on borrowing behaviour. The research concludes that character information sharing has an insignificant effect on borrowing behaviour, yet it is data shared among lenders. The study recommends that commercial banks and the central bank should sensitize the public on the type of information shared as this will help in improving their credit scores, ability to negotiate for better credit terms and reduced reliance on collateral.