Table Of ContentRoutledge Research in Finance and Banking Law
DISCRIMINATION,
VULNERABLE CONSUMERS
AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION
FAIR ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES
AND THE LAW
Edited by
Ca˘ta˘lin-Gabriel Sta˘nescu and Asress Adimi Gikay
Discrimination, Vulnerable
Consumers and Financial
Inclusion
This book addresses the questions of discrimination, vulnerable consumers, and
financial inclusion in light of the emerging legal, socioeconomic, and
technological challenges. New technologies – such as artificial intelligence-
driven consumer credit risk assessment and Fintech platforms, the changing
nature of vulnerability due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the
sophistication of digital technologies, which help circumvent legal barriers and
protections – necessitate the continuous study of the existing legal frameworks
and measures that are capable of tackling these challenges.
Organized in two major parts, the first addresses, from multiple national
angles, the idea of a human rights approach to consumer law, in order to replace
the mantra of economic efficiency that characterizes financial services with those
of human dignity and freedom from discrimination and from debt-induced
servitude. The second tackles the challenges posed by increased usage of
technology in connection with financial services, which tends to solve, but also
creates, additional issues for consumers in general, and for vulnerable groups in
particular.
Cătălin-Gabriel Stănescu is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Market and
Economic Law, University of Copenhagen.
Asress Adimi Gikay is Lecturer at Brunel University London with his research
focusing on Artificial Intelligence, Law and Ethics.
Routledge Research in Finance and Banking Law
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Mortgage Lending and Macroprudential Policy in the US and UK
Alan Howard Brener
Conceptualizing the Regulatory Thicket
China’s Financial Markets After the Global Financial Crisis
Shen Wei
Banking Bailout Law
A comparative study of the United States, United Kingdom, and the European
Union
Virag Blazsek
Public-Private Partnerships in Emerging Economies
Augustine Edobor Arimoro
International Investment Protection within Europe
The EU’s Assertion of Control
Julien Berger
Regulation and the Global Financial Crisis
Impact, Regulatory Responses, and Beyond
Daniel Cash and Robert Goddard
Discrimination, Vulnerable Consumers and Financial Inclusion
Fair Access to Financial Services and the Law
Edited by Cătălin-Gabriel Stănescu and Asress Adimi Gikay
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-
Research-in-Finance-and-Banking-Law/book-series/FINANCIALLAW.
Discrimination,
Vulnerable Consumers
and Financial Inclusion
Fair Access to Financial Services
and the Law
Edited by Cătălin-Gabriel
Stănescu and Asress Adimi Gikay
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Cătălin-Gabriel Stănescu and
Asress Adimi Gikay; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Cătălin-Gabriel Stănescu and Asress Adimi Gikay to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Stanescu, Catalin-Gabriel, 1980- editor. | Gikay, Asress Adimi,
1984- editor.
Title: Discrimination, vulnerable consumers, and financial inclusion:
fair access to financial services and the law / edited by Cat̆al̆in Gabriel
Stan̆ escu and Asress Adimi Gikay.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY:
Routledge, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020032994 (print) | LCCN 2020032995 (ebook)
| ISBN 9780367511111 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003055075 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Discrimination—Law and legislation. | Consumer
protection—Law and legislation. | Credit—Law and legislation. |
Financial services—Law and legislation. | Consumption
(Economics)—Social aspects. | Low-income consumers. | Legal
assistance to the poor.
Classification: LCC K3242.D575 2021 (print) | LCC K3242 (ebook) |
DDC 343.07/25—dc23
LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/2020032994
LC ebook record available at lccn.loc.gov/2020032995
ISBN: 978-0-367-51111-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-05507-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of contributors viii
Introduction: discrimination, vulnerable consumers
and financial inclusion (Stănescu and Gikay) 1
PART I 23
1 Tackling issues in consumer credit: the role of human
rights (Ondersma) 25
2 Beyond negative interpretations of freedom of contract:
the interplay between private law and human rights
in light of the UN convention on the rights of
persons with disabilities (Varney) 35
3 Anti-discrimination efforts for insurance consumers:
legislation and practice in Mainland China (Kailiang) 57
4 Vulnerability, financial inclusion, and the heightened
relevance of education in a credit crisis (Iheme) 80
5 The payments revolution: toward financial exclusion
or inclusion? (Rochemont) 111
PART II 139
6 Inside the black box: the impact of machine learning
on the creditworthiness assessment (Atkinson) 141
vi Contents
7 Consumer peer-to-peer lending and the promise of
enhancing access to credit: lessons from the
Netherlands (Buit) 166
8 Digital debt collection: opportunities, abuses and
concerns (Stănescu) 185
9 Financial conduct in the UK’s banking sector:
regulating to protect vulnerable consumers
(Powley and Stanton) 206
10 Are some classes of consumer-investors of collapsed
pyramid and Ponzi schemes vulnerable? A multi-
jurisdictional perspective (Tajti) 236
Index 289
Acknowledgments
This book is the outcome of an international conference entitled “Fair and
Non-Discriminatory Access to Financial Services” that took place at the
Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in September 2019. The
aim of the conference was to analyze recent trends and challenges posed by
technological advancements and discriminatory practices against vulnerable
consumer groups in accessing financial services in a number of international
jurisdictions.
We would like to thank all those who answered the call and actively
participated in the two days of presentations and discussions in Copenhagen
and made both the event and this book possible.
Our appreciation goes to the Carlsberg Foundation and the Dreyer Fund
for their generous financial support, their commitment to high-quality academic
research, and their flexibility and responsiveness. Without them, it would have
been impossible to organize the conference, bring together the participants from
all around the world, record all presentations, interview all participants, and make
them available for the wider public.
We express our gratitude to Professor Caroline Heide-Jørgensen, Head of the
Center for Market and Economic Law (Faculty of Law University of Copenhagen)
and Professor Henrik Palmer Olsen, Associate Dean for Research (Faculty of
Law, University of Copenhagen) for their steady support and for endorsing,
promoting, and hosting the conference.
Credit is also due to the amazing staff at the University of Copenhagen, who
helped finance, organize, and run the conference: Malene Vinberg Johansen,
Cecilie Petersen, Michelle Goncalves Kjærulff, and Sharon O’Carroll Khan.
Last, but not least, a special acknowledgment goes to Siobhan Poole and
Chloe James, from Routledge, for their support and assistance in turning this
book into a reality.
We hope the book will prove interesting and that it will facilitate the exchange
of ideas and understanding, foster meaningful discussions, and lead to inspired
solutions for the benefit of all vulnerable consumers.
Contributors
Cătălin-Gabriel Stănescu is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Market and
Economic Law, University of Copenhagen. Cătălin became a member of the
National Union of Romanian Bar Associations in 2006 and worked both in
private practice and as in-house counsel for two major multinational
corporations. In 2015, he obtained a doctorate (summa cum laude) in
International Business Law (Central European University) with a thesis
entitled “Self-Help, Private Debt Collection and the Concomitant Risks –
A Comparative Analysis” (Springer, 2015). Since 2016, he joined the Faculty
of Law, University of Copenhagen, teaching and researching in commercial
and consumer law. Cătălin obtained a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship in
2018 and is currently conducting his research project on the need to
harmonize regulation concerning abusive debt collection practices in the
European Union. His other research interests concern consumer finance,
digitization of financial services, fair and nondiscriminatory access to credit,
consumer vulnerability, and economic inequality.
Dr. Asress Adimi Gikay is Lecturer at Brunel University London with his
research focusing on Artificial Intelligence, Law and Ethics. In 2020, he
completed his PhD (with Honor) in Individual Person and Legal Protections
at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa, Italy) with a thesis on the
Regulation of Automated Consumer Credit Scoring in the EU and the US.
He also earned a Doctorate Degree in Juridical Sciences (summa cum laude)
at Central European University (CEU) in 2016 specializing in comparative
secured transactions law. He holds an LLM in International Business Law
(CEU) and an LLM in Comparative Law, Economic and Finance (IUC-
Torino). He obtained his LLB with distinction from Addis Ababa University
Faculty of Law in 2008.
Dr. Asress Adimi Gikay has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals
on topics ranging from secured transaction law reform to the regulation of
blockchain and cryptocurrencies including in the Journal of Civil Law Studies,
Case Western Reserve Journal of Law, Technology & the Internet, Tilburg Law
Review, and Mizan Law Review. He has also authored monographs published
Contributors ix
on the International Encyclopedia of Laws and a book titled Competition Law
in Ethiopia published by Kluwer Law International.
Joanne Atkinson is Principal Lecturer in Law at the University of Portsmouth.
Joanne qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1999 and spent time
working both in private practice and in-house for a global financial services
corporation. She joined the University of Portsmouth in 2011, teaching
corporate and commercial law in a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate
courses. Joanne is the University’s LLM course director and uses her
experience in legal practice to enhance and enliven students’ experience.
Her research interests focus on consumer credit regulation and fair access to
credit. Since 2019, Joanne has been a contributing editor of Goode’s
Consumer Credit Law and Practice.
Martha Buit holds an LLM (cum laude) in Legal Research with a focus on
private law from the University of Groningen and is currently a PhD
researcher at the Groningen Centre for European Financial Services Law.
Her research concerns lending-based crowdfunding and how this alternative
financing structure can be adequately regulated. In particular, the project
focuses on achieving a balance between the protection of consumers and small
and medium-sized enterprises and enabling the further innovation and
growth of LB-crowdfunding.
Williams C. Iheme obtained his doctor of juridical science degree (SJD) in 2016
from Central European University, and his book titled Towards Reforming the
Legal Framework for Secured Transactions in Nigeria (Springer, 2016)
heralded a major law reform in Nigeria’s secured transactions law in 2017.
He was Visiting Research Scholar at the Cornell Law School in 2015. He is
currently Associate Professor at the Jindal Global Law School and recurrent
Visiting Professor at the Strathmore Law School. Before joining academia full
time, he was practicing law for some years at top commercial law firms in
Lagos where clients consulted him for his authoritative advice on contracts,
corporate insolvency, secured transactions, etc. Apart from consumer
protection law, his other research interests include corporate governance,
insolvency, arbitration, international trade, and secured transactions.
MA Kailiang is a law PhD candidate sponsored by China Scholarship Council at
the University of Paris-Sud/University of Paris-Saclay and Visiting Scholar in
the Law School at the University of Copenhagen. He graduated from China
University of Political Science and Law with a master’s degree in Economic
Law. His PhD dissertation focused on researching shareholder protection
regimes in financial holding companies. He has published several papers on
Internet finance regulation and reform of state-owned enterprises both in
Chinese and English. Also, he participated in research programs supported by
the National Social Science Fund of China and China University of Political
Science and Law. Moreover, he has participated in several international
conferences where he served as a speaker and contributed papers. He currently
