| Motto | Results and Solutions |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2002 |
| Type | Public Policy Think Tank |
| Headquarters | 302 East Pettigrew Street, The Venable Center Ste 130 |
| Location | Durham, North Carolina |
| President | Dr. Michael Turner |
| Website | www.perc.net |
PERC, the Policy and Economic Research Council [1] is a Durham, North Carolina based non-profit, non-partisan think tank that concentrates on market-based economic development, both in the United States and internationally. PERC is a primary thought leader in the field of alternative data[2], and has spearheaded information-led development[3] as a means for effective community economic development. PERC scholars have published a number of reports, presented findings worldwide, and testified before the United States Congress on a variety of issues. PERC scholars also serve as expert witnesses in matters pertaining to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumer credit, credit reporting and credit scoring, and the value of information sharing in commercial varying contexts.
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PERC was initially founded as the Information Policy Institute in 2002 in New York City[4]. It first entered national prominence with the reauthorization of the Fair Credit Reporting Act in 2003. PERC produced Access, Efficiency, and Opportunity for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce[5]. The report was the most cited document during the Congressional debate that resulted in the adoption of all of PERC's policy prescriptions[6]. In 2004, it helped to rationalize the free credit provisions of the FACT Act. PERC's research assisted in the reopening of financial data sharing in Australia and led to a Parliamentary inquiry[7]. In August 2008, the Australian Law Reform Commission advocated that Australia follow many of PERC's recommendations[8].
In 2006, PERC published Give Credit Where Credit Is Due with The Brookings Institution, helping to reignite interest in the issue of alternative data[9]. PERC remains very active in the field through its Alternative Data Initiative[10] [11] . PERC also has a long-running interest in economic recovery in the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina. A number of surveys and reports on small business recovery have been released[12] [13] . PERC has released studies for the governments of South Africa, Brazil[14], Japan[15], and several Latin American markets as a whole[16].
In September, 2009, Dr. Michael Turner was selected to be a fellow at Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, which solidified Ashoka's support for PERC's Alternative Data Initiative [17] .
Michael Turner is the President and Senior Scholar of PERC. He founded the Policy and Economic Research Council also called PERC in 2002. He is a prominent expert on credit access, credit reporting and scoring, information policy, and economic development. He has testified before Congress and numerous state legislatures, and presented studies to a host of government agencies including the FTC, the FCC, and the FDIC, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Council of Economic Advisors, and the White House.
Dr. Turner was appointed to the first Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee of the Department of Homeland Security by former Secretary Tom Ridge, and served on an Advisory Board at the Brookings Institution. He has advised senior government officials in more than 20 countries, and was a policy advisor to the Obama Campaign on urban policy.
The author or co-author of dozens of books, studies, or articles, Dr. Turner is widely cited in the mainstream and trade media. He is a highly sought after public speaker who has addressed audiences worldwide. Dr. Turner has served as expert witness for both plaintiff and defense in several federal cases (class action, anti-trust) involving information policy, consumer credit, credit reporting and financials services.
Dr. Turner served as Graduate Fellow at the Columbia Institute of Tele-Information at the Columbia Business School, Executive Director of the Information Services Executive Council, manger of government affairs for the North American Telecommunications Association, and staff assistant in the U.S. Senate. Dr. Turner received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in International Political Economy and his B.A. from Miami University in Economics. He was awarded a Yeck Fellowship from Harvard Business School, and was awarded the Ashoka Foundation Fellowship in 2009.
Besides previous work in data privacy and information policy, PERC has a number of currently active projects:
Up to 54 million Americans have insufficient credit information to qualify for mainstream credit[18]. PERC has been promoting the full reporting of customer payment data -- both positive and negative data -- by energy utility and telecom firms to credit rating agencies as a way of helping millions of Americans quickly build a positive credit history and enable them to access affordable credit. PERC has published three major reports on the issue: Giving Underserved Consumers Better Access to the Credit System, Give Credit Where Credit is Due (with the Brookings Institution), and You Score, You Win. PERC also conducts extensive outreach, including testimony in front of Congress[19]. PERC works with the three major credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, as well as consumer groups, asset building organizations including the Corporation for Enterprise Development CFED, state and federal legislators, and regulators as part of its Alternative Data Initiative.
In the Fall of 2009, owing to the promise of the Alternative Data Initiative, the Ashoka Foundation named PERC founder Dr. Michael Turner a United States Ashoka Fellow. This is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a social entrepreneur, and is indicative of the great potential PERC's ADI holds to dramatically increase financial inclusion in the US and globally.
PERC also conducts research in international economic development. PERC scholars have conducted research and outreach in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, China, India, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Costa Rica, South Africa, Russia, and Singapore. PERC founded the Asia-Pacific Credit Coalition to promote regional credit reporting standards[20]. In March 2008, it hosted an international experts conference on credit reporting in China with Peking University[21]. PERC has been retained by the National Credit Regulator of South Africa to conduct research on SMEs, the Inter-American Development Bank to assess credit information sharing in Mexico, and the Kenyan Credit Information Sharing Initiative of the Kenyan Bankers Association and the Central Bank of Kenya to assess a first-ever credit information sharing pilot in Kenya.
In addition to their policy work, PERC, through its double bottom line for-profit Credit Risk Management International (CRMI), has been actively developing market solutions to credit access challenges in emerging markets, including Kenya and China. PERC is partnering with SinoCred, an intermediary organization in China, to facilitate the rapid build out of a credit information sharing system and the proliferation of value added services that will dramatically expand credit access in China.
PERC President Michael Turner initially co-authored an op-ed piece on credit impacts of Hurricane Katrina[22]. Interest from this piece led PERC to partner with The Brookings Institution to do a study on the economic effects of disaster on communities. PERC has authored two surveys of small business owners, Recovery, Renewal, and Resiliency' and Recovering But Not Recovered. Research conducted jointly with The World Bank represents the first time in its history that the World Bank has engaged in research focusing upon the United States. They released a report on the credit impacts of disaster[23], and are working to provide a recovery monitoring dashboard.
Asia Pacific Credit Coalition (APCC)[24] is a PERC-managed coalition of organizations that work together to promote a regional standard for full-file, comprehensive consumer credit reporting to private credit bureaus within the twenty-one Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies. The Asia-Pacific Credit Coalition was acknowledged for its influence on the current credit reporting reforms in New Zealand. [25]
The APCC members believe that credit reporting should be based on the following general principles:
1. Both positive and negative credit and payment data should be reported to consumer reporting agencies;
2. Recognizing that the individual is owner of their own credit information,consumer rights and protections are paramount. As such, the OECD Fair Information Principles, including notice, access, choice, correction, and redress, should be judiciously applied and shall serve as the foundation of any regional consumer credit reporting standard.
3. A private credit bureau and a public credit registry are complementary to one another and each play distinct and vital roles in a vital financial services system;
4. Reporting of credit and payment data should be done on a voluntary and not mandatory basis;
5. Access to credit and payment data should be universal to all those with a permissible purpose regardless of whether they report the type of firm[26] .