The Financial Services topic measures four areas— Commercial Lending; Secured Transactions; e—Payments; and Credit Information—across three different dimensions, here referred to as pillars. The first pillar assesses the effectiveness of regulation pertaining to commercial lending, secured transactions, and e— payments, covering the de jure features of regulatory frameworks. The second pillar measures the accessibility of information in credit infrastructure by evaluating the operation of credit bureaus and registries and the operation of collateral registries. Thus, the second pillar assesses de facto and some de jure aspects of financial services. The third pillar measures the operational efficiency of (i) obtaining a loan; (ii) registering a security interest as well as the timeliness of credit information sharing; and (iii) e—payments usage and their efficiency. Each pillar is divided into categories—defined by common features that inform the grouping into a particular category—and each category is further divided into subcategories. Each subcategory has several indicators, each of which may, in turn, have several components. Relevant points are assigned to each indicator and subsequently aggregated to obtain the number of points for each subcategory, category, and pillar.