Tajikistan—Credit Scoring in Tajik Partner Institutions

This project’s main objective was to implement credit scoring in selected banks and non-bank microfinance institutions in Tajikistan. Credit scoring is a tool that helps participating institutions improve loan decision efficiency and quality, which can help to lower operating costs and reduce loan losses. Scoring can also help the partner institutions tailor their product offerings and pricing for borrowers with different risk characteristics. Our approach was participatory so that we could transfer to the local scoring working groups the skills needed to develop, monitor and manage credit risk models without outside assistance in the future.

Sample Activities

• Assess the readiness and willingness of potential project partners to implement scoring.
• Recommend how to best use project resources to develop credit scoring and an appropriate software deployment platform (such as a web-based application processing system) in partner institutions.
• Work with partner institution to design, test, and implement credit scorecards for at least two products.
• Transfer model development, usage, monitoring, and portfolio risk management skills to a credit scoring working group in each partner institution.

Select Results

• Designed operational test models in Microsoft Excel – such programs take only a few days to produce, are easy to edit, require no special software /hardware to run, and compile a database of all testing information that can be used for scorecard calibration and adjustment during and after the testing period.
• The partner institutions we worked have now implemented credit scoring and are using it as a decision support tool in the underwriting process. Scoring has been implemented in dedicated web-based software as part of a wider application processing system.
• Trained working groups to monitor and manage the scorecards and to work with freely available statistical software.