Abstract

Access to and availability of new data sources creates significant statistical opportunities in the
financial market. This paper presents an approach at Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ireland to
produce short-term indicators that will explore the dynamics within the consumer credit market. The
short-term indicators are simply based on counting active contracts, customers, and borrowers in the
consumer credit market and summing over the outstanding amounts associated with each. The
indicators can be broken down by different population cohorts and product portfolios. Cohorts can be
defined by age, gender, employment, location of residence, household structure, income, and any
other available attributes. We explore how these indicators might respond to real-world events and the
potential value they hold in providing insights to the consumer credit market. The paper concludes by
presenting a selected subset of indicators.