RFP-AFI-2023-01 Consultancy for Development of Costa Rica’s National Credit Information System

1. Background:

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) is the world’s leading organization on financial inclusion policy and regulation. Currently, 101 member institutions make up the AFI network including central banks, ministries of finance and other financial policymaking or regulatory institutions from over 89 developing countries and emerging markets. AFI empowers policymakers to increase the access and usage of quality financial services for the underserved through sustainable and inclusive policies and an effective use of digital technologies.

Policies developed and implemented by AFI members contribute to a range of the Sustainable Development Goals. By Setting their own agenda, AFI members harness the power of peer learning to develop practical and tested policy reforms that enhance financial inclusion with strategic support from both public and private sector partners.

AFI has 7 Working Groups (WGs): Consumer Empowerment and Market Conduct Working Group (CEMCWG), Digital Financial Services Working Group (DFSWG), Financial Inclusion Data Working Group (FIDWG), Financial Inclusion Strategy Peer Learning Group (FISPLG), Global Standards Proportionality Working Group (GSPWG), Inclusive Green Finance Working Group (IGFWG) and SME Finance Working Group (SMEFWG).

As the key source of policy developments and trends in financial inclusion and as the primary mechanism for generating and incubating technical content in the network, the Working Groups serve as “communities of practice”. Providing a platform for knowledge exchange and peer learning among policymakers to share, deliberate and deepen their understanding, the working groups offer leadership and expertise in their respective policy fields and support the network to monitor new developments in emerging fields.

The knowledge generated via the working groups is disseminated for implementation by a range of capacity building activities such as Joint Learning Programs, Member Trainings, Trainings by Private Sector Partners. The practical experience members garner from engaging in peer learning based capacity building is then applied by members as in country implementation projects which are supported by the provision of financial or technical support to AFI member institutions in conducting activities that aim to deliver financial inclusion policies, regulations, supervisory tools or enablers for the development of policies, such as national financial inclusion strategies.

The working groups receive strategic guidance and insight from the High-Level Global Standards & Policy Committee, while the Gender Inclusive Finance Committee, supports WGs in integrating gender considerations into all aspects of their work and support members in fulfilling their Denarau Action Plan (2016) commitment to promote women’s financial inclusion.

AFI members have made further commitments in a range of other accords which can be read here.

The AFI’s five regional initiatives complete the AFI platform of services by supporting policy implementation in Africa (AfPI), Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC), the Pacific Islands (PIRI), Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECAPI) and the Arab Region (FIARI).

2. Project Background:

SUGEF currently manages a “Credit Information Center” (CIC), which is a database that reflects the credit operations that financial system debtors have had in the last four years, as well as their payment behavior. This database is directly fed by the supervised financial institutions who are obliged by law to supply the information and, also by law, SUGEF can only provide information to supervised financial institutions and credit grantors registered under the “Usury Law”, being prohibited from providing information to third parties. This database offers only a partial view of the way in which people attend to their credit operations, since it does not include information on credit operations granted by unsupervised credit providers, public services, etc.

There are also a few private credit bureaus in the country, but their information is also partial in view of the fact that financial institutions do not provide them with information, and generally non-supervised credit grantors only provide negative information, mainly due to the information protection regime derived from said credit operations according to the national legal system (inviolability of private documents, right of privacy, informational self-determination and bank secrecy, among others).

The foregoing represents an important weakness at the country level, since there is no platform that reflects all the credit operations that individuals and companies have, making it impossible to properly analyze their ability to pay (which promotes over-indebtedness) and prevents it from leveraging from concepts such as “Reputation Guarantee” and good payment behavior (which mainly hurts micro and small businesses/entrepreneurs).

Consequently, SUGEF is interested in promoting the creation of a “Credit Information System” at the national level that aggregates the information of all credit grantors (public and private) in the country, including non-supervised entities, taking advantage of the experience, knowledge and technological platforms already existing at an international level through the best international providers and under the supervision and control of the State that best suits the nature of this project. This initiative was included as a commitment to the Mayan Declaration.

Although SUGEF already has a first draft of a proposal, this is in a very early stage of development, so it must be expanded and strengthened.

3. Objectives:

The general goal of the consultancy is expanding access to credit through the creation of credit records for individuals, micro and small businesses, currently excluded from the financial system, and to encourage the use of instruments such as the “reputational guarantee”. That by means of providing the country with a comprehensive credit information system, which allows to improve and optimize the allocation of credit within the national economy, in a more effective and efficient way, reducing costs and improving the process of defining interest rates, by improving the credit risk management by supervised and unsupervised credit providers. This system would thus contribute to including sectors of the population without access to credit or with precarious possibilities of accessing credit, mainly due to the lack of information that allow financial institutions to precisely define their risk profile. As well as reducing people’s over-indebtedness (which contributes to their financial security) and improving the ability of institutions to manage the credit risk of their debtors.

4. Task & Deliverables:

Key deliverables:

4.1 Evaluation, expansion, and improvement of an already prepared proposal for a report on the technical definition of the operation and minimum technical characteristics for three options of “Credit Information System” that could be used in Costa Rica. namely:

1. Strengthening of the “Credit Information Center” (CIC) currently managed by SUGEF to compulsorily expand its scope to non-supervised credit grantors.
2. Public procurement of a private institution that take charge of the development and administration of the system in a self-sustaining manner so that it does not generate additional expenditures for the State (including a recommendation of the administrative body that should be in charge of the System and the legal figure that could be used for public contracting of its management to a private institution).
3. Strengthening of the private credit bureaus that operate in the country, making them institutions subject to supervision with a view to creating a network that as a whole provides exhaustive information.

Said document includes the following content:

4.1.1: Benchmarking of systems already implemented in other countries

4.1.2: Study of international recommendations and best practices

4.1.3: Outline of the current situation in the country

4.1.4: Development of conclusions and recommendations

4.2 Technical support to local consultants in charge of developing the legal documents necessary for the implementation of the Credit Information System in the country.

This support would include answering any question regarding the technical characteristics for three options of “Credit Information System” previously defined, as well as providing technical information on their international operation necessary to prepare the required legal feasibility study and bill of law.

No travel to Costa Rica will be required.

5. Timeline & Submission:

The consulting work will begin in February of 2023 until May of 2023. The final draft of the study must be completed no later than 31 May of 2023.

Outputs & Activities

Timeline – Indicator – Means of Verification

Output 1: Evaluation, expansion, and improvement of an already prepared proposal for a report on the technical definition of the operation and minimum technical characteristics for three options of “Credit Information System” that could be used in Costa Rica.

31 March 2023 – Technical report adjusted by the consultancy – Electronic copy of the document

Output 2: Technical support to local consultants in charge of developing the legal documents necessary for the implementation of the Credit Information System in the country

31 May 2023 – Report with the compilation of the answers provided to the local consultants – Electronic copy of the document

6. Qualification:

The consultant performing this task must have the following qualifications:

• Higher degree in a field related to Economics, Finance, Public Policy, International Development, or other related discipline.
• Knowledge and at least ten (10) years experience in development and financing policies.
• At least seven (7) years of experience and knowledge regarding international credit information systems or models.
• Fluency in English and Spanish (oral and written) is mandatory.
• Writing experience. If possible, send related working papers or research on the topic.

7. Reporting:

Throughout the contract period, the Consultant will be reporting to Coordinator, Statistics and Publications Unit of SUGEF and Head, Regional Office Latin America & Caribbean of Alliance for Financial Inclusion. The contract will be with the consulting firm with specific names of the team member(s) that would be working on the assignment. The consultant(s) are expected to have good knowledge and technical background related to laws and Credit Information Systems science and financial inclusion.

8. Proposal Submission Information:

Proposals will be due with the following requirements for submission:

Submission Deadline: 30 January 2023

Documents to be submitted with Annexure 1 and 2:

Firm

· Company Registration;

· Company Profile;

· List of previous or current clientele on similar work;

· References with email contact;

· Joint-Agreement (if any);

· Conflict of Interest Disclosure form;

• At least one (1) sample work (link or attachments)

Individual

· Full CVs with list of previous similar work;

· Disclosure if individual have a full time or part time employment contract with any organization or government official or indirect involvement in this tender;

· Conflict of Interest Disclosure form;

· Reference letter (if any);

· References with email contact;

• At least one (1) sample work (link or attachments)

Method of Submission:

By email to AFI’s Procurement & Contracts Office at

[email protected]

Submission of Technical and Financial:

Kindly submit the followings:

1. Using the template/format given in Annexure 1 (Technical) and Annexure 2 (Financial) and/or additional technical proposal for more information.

2. Technical and Financial proposal must be separated in different pdf.

3. Financial proposals must be USD only. Whereas for Malaysian applicants with Business Registration under Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM), please submit your financial proposals in MYR.

4. Proposal to be submitted to the designated email address.

5. AFI does not tolerate copyright infringement, including but not limited to infringement, in the form of plagiarism. Consultant or Consulting entity awarded a contract by AFI shall take responsibility to ensure that the authored works, produced in parts or as an entirety of the deliverables stated in this RFP does not infringe on copyrights.

AFI reserves the right to disqualify incomplete submission, overlapping submission, non-compliance to the above requirements. Notification of results will only be sent to shortlisted candidates upon completion.

9. Criteria for Evaluation:

The proposals submitted will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. Profile and Overall Qualification – 20%

• Academic Qualification 10%
• Sample work – writing experience with English 10%

2. Technical experience – 50%

• Relevant experience in undertaking evaluations on similar projects 15%
• Experience and knowledge regarding credit information systems or models at an international level. 15%
• Relevant experience in development and financing policies, as well as legal research. 10%
• Regional and/or global experience 10%

3. Adequacy of the proposed work plan and methodology in responding to the Terms of Reference – 30%

• Technical approach and Methodology 20%
• Workplan 10%

Total: 100%

Evaluation of technical and financial proposals

The evaluation and decision on the best proposal will be made based on the combined criterion, where companies are qualified by means of a score that takes into account the combined valuation of the technical and financial proposals, with the following weights:

1. a) Technical Proposal: 70% (Seventy percent)
2. b) Financial Proposal: 30% (Thirty percent)

How to apply

Interested applicants are expected to submit a proposal with an updated CV and using the template given by email to AFI’s Procurement & Contracts Office at [email protected] by 30th January 2023.

Note: AFI does not tolerate copyright infringement, including and not limited to infringement, in the form of plagiarism. Consultant or consulting entity awarded a contract by AFI shall take responsibility to ensure that the authored works, produced in parts or as an entirety of the deliverables stated in this RFP does not infringe on copyrights.

The final decision on the selection of a consultant/consulting firm for this project rests with AFI management team and with the Inquiry. Only shortlisted and successful consultants will be contacted.