The book addresses the current challenges faced by financial consumers in the context of enormous technological developments. This edited collection covers safeguarding financial consumers, encompassing topics such as financial inclusion, data protection and consumer over-indebtedness. Addressing specific issues related to vulnerable consumer groups and the increasing digitization of financial services, it grapples with the emerging challenge demanding that consumers possess technological literacy.

The book offers a distinct new perspective, going beyond the traditional understanding of financial inclusion, which typically only considers the possession of a bank account. Instead, it explores new dimensions, including the obstacles consumers face in obtaining credit, establishing a credit history, and coping with issues such as being blacklisted. The book explores diverse strategies for enhancing financial inclusion, such as leveraging data, and open banking. It also scrutinizes the pursuit of credit fairness and examines methods to either mitigate or effectively address over-indebtedness, a persistent and formidable challenge for financial consumers.

The book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, and governmental organisations in the field of finance law and the law of emerging technologies.

Duygu Damar-Blanken completed her LL.B. and LL.M. studies in Istanbul/Turkey. After the completion of her LL.B. study, she was a teaching and research assistant at the Istanbul Bilgi University. She was awarded with Dr. iur. title in 2011 after the completion of her Ph.D. study at the University of Hamburg. From 2011 to 2018, she was senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. She also held lectures at the University of Hamburg. Currently, she is working on her post-doc thesis on the “Prohibition of Discrimination in German and US-American Contract Law”. Since 2020 she works as research associate at the Institute for Responsible Finance. Since October 2024 she is a member of the Financial Services User Group at the European Commission. Her fields of expertise are Private International Law, Comparative Law, Antidiscrimination Law, Contract Law, Commercial Law and Law of Financial Services.

Michelle Kelly-Louw is a professor of banking law and Head of the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Cape Town. Her publications have been cited by various high courts, including the South African Supreme Court of Appeal, the Constitutional Court, and Namibia. For her research, she has received five research awards. Throughout her career, she has been involved in various law reform initiatives and legislative drafting projects. She has held visiting fellowships at international universities. She is the immediate past President of the International Association of Consumer Law (IACL), a member of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law (IACCL), member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and an exco-member of the International Academy of Financial Consumers (IAFICO). She serves on the Specialist Law Committee of the South African National Rating System and was re-appointed to the adjudication panel of the South African Women-in-Science-Awards.