Lists come alive: electronic systems of knowledge and the rise of credit-scoring in retail banking

This paper focuses upon a change in the type of market knowledge privileged by retail banks as a result of the rise of a new implementation of informa tion technology. In traditional retail banks market knowledge was embodied in the local manager and his/her staff in branches. Over the last decade or so, such embodied knowledge has been downgraded and greater emphasis has b een placed on the more systematic use of empirical information on customers derived from other sources, made possible by the rise of computers, softwa re and databases. The most significant development in this regard has been the now routine use of credit-scoring systems, which are designed to overco me the chronic problems of information asymmetries in the industry and to d istinguish 'good' from 'bad' customers 'at-a-distance'. The use of credit-s coring systems and the rise of a marketing discourse within the industry re presents a major transformation in the knowledge base of the industry. The paper critically evaluates ways in which this transformation has been broug ht about and considers the likely shape of the new systems of knowledge whi ch are now coming to dominate the industry.