Mission
The Financial Services Research Program (FSRP) was established to study the economic and social issues surrounding consumer access to credit and other retail financial services. The FSRP conducts research, organizes conferences and seminars, prepares analysis for federal and state regulatory agencies and legislative committees, and collaborates with academic researchers globally to design and conduct new projects related to credit usage. Senior research staff lecture extensively to both U.S. and global audiences on topics such as credit reporting, credit scoring, the impact of interest rate ceilings on credit availability, fair-lending regulations, credit counseling, college student credit card usage, and personal bankruptcy.

History
Origins of the Financial Services Research Program at the George Washington University School of Business date back to 1974 and the establishment of the Credit Research Center (CRC) at Purdue University’s Krannert Graduate School of Management. The center was founded by Dr. Robert W. Johnson, a professor of finance at Purdue and a presidential appointee to the National Commission on Consumer Finance in 1969. During its 3-year existence the Commission coordinated a massive research program to study the operation of consumer credit markets in the United States. Although the Commission's multi-volume report was delivered to Congress in 1972, its work had established the ongoing value of academic research for guiding public policy toward retail credit markets. The CRC was formed as a unit of the Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue to meet that need. It operated at Purdue for 23 years before relocating in 1997 to Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business in Washington, DC. Location in the nation’s capital greatly enhanced the CRC’s access to policymakers and researchers within the federal government as well as numerous think-tanks, associations, and universities in or near the greater Washington area.

Over the course of three decades after its founding, the CRC gained a national reputation for its work in evaluating public policy toward credit markets. The Center's academic affiliation and policy orientation brought sophisticated research expertise to bear on important regulatory issues. By subjecting its methods and results to external academic review and publishing in peer-reviewed academic journals, the Center maintained its integrity and objectivity as an unbiased resource for policymakers. Center staff frequently testified before the U.S. Congress and state legislatures regarding the impact of various regulations of credit and home mortgage markets. Over one hundred articles and monographs by affiliated scholars document the Center’s research output.

In August 2006 the CRC senior research staff departed Georgetown and joined the faculty of the George Washington Business School to establish the Financial Services Research Program within the Center for Real Estate and Urban Studies. At GW the mission of the old Credit Research Center lives on through the FSRP. (For additional information about the origins of the Credit Research Center, click here.)