Credit rating analysis using adaptive fuzzy rule-based systems: an industry-specific approach

This paper presents an analysis of credit rating using fuzzy rule-based systems. The disadvantage of the models used in previous studies is that it is difficult to extract understandable knowledge from them. The root of this problem is the use of natural language that is typical for the credit rating process. This problem can be solved using fuzzy logic, which enables users to model the meaning of natural language words. Therefore, the fuzzy rule-based system adapted by a feed-forward neural network is designed to classify US companies (divided into the finance, manufacturing, mining, retail trade, services, and transportation industries) and municipalities into the credit rating classes obtained from rating agencies. Features are selected using a filter combined with a genetic algorithm as a search method. The resulting subsets of features confirm the assumption that the rating process is industry-specific (i.e. specific determinants are used for each industry). The results show that the credit rating classes assigned to bond issuers can be classified with high classification accuracy using low numbers of features, membership functions, and if-then rules. The comparison of selected fuzzy rule-based classifiers indicates that it is possible to increase classification performance by using different classifiers for individual industries.     

Fuzzy adaptive network in presidential elections

Several scientific forecasting models for presidential elections have been suggested. However, most of these models are based on traditional statistics approaches. Since the system is linguistic, vague, and dynamic in nature, the traditional rigorous mathematical approaches are inappropriate for the modeling of this kind of humanistic system. This paper presents a combined neural fuzzy approach, namely a fuzzy adaptive network, to model and forecast the problem of a presidential election. The fuzzy adaptive network, which is ideally suited for the modeling of vaguely defined humanistic systems, combines the advantages of the representation ability of fuzzy sets and the learning ability of a neural network. To illustrate the approach, experiments were carried out by first formulating the problem, then training the network, and, finally, predicting the election results based on the trained network. The experimental results show that a fuzzy adaptive network is an ideal approach for the modeling and forecasting of national presidential elections.     

An architecture of fuzzy neural networks for linguistic processing

Fuzzy sets have been used successfully in order to deal with imprecise data, linguistic terms or not well-defined concepts. Recently, considerable effort has been made in the direction of combining the neural network approach with fuzzy sets. In this paper a fuzzy feed-forward neural network, able to process trapezoidal fuzzy sets, has been investigated. Normalized trapezoidal fuzzy sets have been considered. The fuzzy generalized delta rule with different back-propagation algorithms is discussed. The more interesting and characteristic property of the proposed architecture is the ability of each node to process fuzzy sets or linguistic terms, preserving the simplicity of the back-propagation algorithm. Consequently, the resulting architecture is able to cope with problems in which the input parameters and the desired targets are described by linguistic terms. This methodology has the further interesting characteristic of being able to operate at the linguistic level rather than at the numerical level, that is it can work at a higher data abstraction level. An example in computerized electrocardiography will be illustrated in order to test the proposed approach.     

Credit rating prediction using Ant Colony Optimization

The introduction of the Basel II Capital Accord has encouraged financial institutions to build internal rating systems assessing the credit risk of their various credit portfolios. One of the key outputs of an internal rating system is the probability of default (PD), which reflects the likelihood that a counterparty will default on his/her financial obligation. Since the PD modelling problem basically boils down to a discrimination problem (defaulter or not), one may rely on the myriad of classification techniques that have been suggested in the literature. However, since the credit risk models will be subject to supervisory review and evaluation, they must be easy to understand and transparent. Hence, techniques such as neural networks or support vector machines are less suitable due to their black box nature. Building upon previous research, we will use AntMiner+ to build internal rating systems for credit risk. AntMiner+ allows to infer a propositional rule set from a given data set, hereby using the principles from Ant Colony Optimization. Experiments will be conducted using various types of credit data sets (retail, small- and medium-sized enterprises and banks). It will be shown that the extracted rule sets are both powerful in terms of discriminatory power and comprehensibility. Furthermore, a framework will be presented describing how AntMiner+ fits into a global Basel II credit risk management system.     

基于平滑扩充原理的商业银行信用风险评级模型及实证

本文通过银行的资产质量方面、资本充足率方面、管控效能层面、盈利状态层面、流动性层面与社会敏感度层面等构建商业银行信用风险评价体系。根据平滑扩充原理模拟生成大样本数据,对评级得分进行扩充,进而根据扩充后的大样本数据划分银行的信用风险等级。解决了由于样本少、无法对信用等级合理划分的难题。通过实证分析可以了解到,本文得出的银行评级信息和标准普尔提供的评价结论存在共同的序关系状态。因此,可根据本模型对大多数未经过国际权威机构评级的银行进行风险评级。     

Group decision making based on novel fuzzy modified TOPSIS method

The aim of this paper is to present a novel fuzzy modified technique of order preference by a similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method by a group of experts, which can select the best alternative by considering both conflicting quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria in real-life applications. The proposed method satisfies the condition of being the closest to the fuzzy positive ideal solution and also being the farthest from the fuzzy negative ideal solution with multi-judges and multi-criteria. The performance rating values of alternatives versus conflicting criteria as well as the weights of criteria are described by linguistic variables and are transformed into triangular fuzzy numbers. Then a new collective index is introduced to discriminate among alternatives in the evaluation process with respect to subjective judgment and objective information. This paper shows that the proposed fuzzy modified TOPSIS method is a suitable decision making tool for the manufacturing decisions with two examples for the robot selection and rapid prototyping process selection.     

Classification of companies using maximal margin ellipsoidal surfaces

We recently proposed a data mining approach for classifying companies into several groups using ellipsoidal surfaces. This problem can be formulated as a semi-definite programming problem, which can be solved within a practical amount of computation time by using a state-of-the-art semi-definite programming software. It turned out that this method performs better for this application than earlier methods based on linear and general quadratic surfaces. In this paper we will improve the performance of ellipsoidal separation by incorporating the idea of maximal margin hyperplane developed in the field of support vector machine. It will be demonstrated that the new method can very well simulate the rating of a leading rating company of Japan by using up to 18 financial attributes of 363 companies. This paper is expected to provide another evidence of the importance of ellipsoidal separation approach in credit risk analysis.     

Combining compound linguistic ordinal scale and cognitive pairwise comparison in the rectified fuzzy TOPSIS method for group decision making

Group decision making is the process to explore the best choice among the screened alternatives under predefined criteria with corresponding weights from assessment of a group of decision makers. The Fuzzy TOPSIS taking an evaluated fuzzy decision matrix as input is a popular tool to analyze the ideal alternative. This research, however, finds that the classical fuzzy TOPSIS produces a misleading result due to some inappropriate definitions, and proposes the rectified fuzzy TOPSIS addressing two technical problems. As the decision accuracy also depends on the evaluation quality of the fuzzy decision matrix comprising rating scores and weights, this research applies compound linguistic ordinal scale as the fuzzy rating scale for expert judgments, and cognitive pairwise comparison for determining the fuzzy weights. The numerical case of a robot selection problem demonstrates the hybrid approach leading to the much reliable result for decision making, comparing with the conventional fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and TOPSIS.     

A genetic design of linguistic terms for fuzzy rule based classifiers

The determination of fuzzy information granules including the estimation of their membership functions play a significant role in fuzzy system design as well as in the design of fuzzy rule based classifiers (FRBCSs). However, although linguistic terms are fundamental elements in the process of elucidating expert’s knowledge, the problem of linguistic term design along with their fuzzy-set-based semantics has not been fully addressed, since term-sets of attributes have not been interpreted as a formalized structure. Thus, the essential relationship between linguistic terms, as syntax, and the constructed fuzzy sets, as their quantitative semantics, or in other words, the problem of the natural semantics of terms behind the linguistic literal has not been addressed. In this paper, we introduce the problem of the design of optimal linguistic terms and propose a method of the design of FRBCSs which may incorporate with the design of linguistic terms to ensure that the presence of linguistic literals are supported not only by data but also by their natural semantics. It is shown that this problem plays a primordial role in enhancing the performance and the interpretability of the designed FRBCSs and helps striking a better balance between the generality and the specificity of the desired fuzzy rule bases for fuzzy classification problems. A series of experiments concerning 17 Machine Learning datasets is reported.     

基于直觉模糊网络分析法和二元语义的文化创意企业价值评估方法

在股权转让、抵押贷款、上市、兼并与重组时,准确的评估企业价值有助于管理者和投资者作出正确有效的决策。根据文化创意企业的特点,提出从财务和非财务两方面对文化创意企业的价值进行评估。财务方面采用贴现现金流法进行估计。非财务方面,从企业的经营性、创意性、成长性和带动性四个方面选取指标,构建具有相互作用和反馈关系的网络指标体系。为更好地表达不确定条件下专家或决策者的意见,引入直觉模糊偏好关系建立判断矩阵。结合二元语义综合评价方法得到非财务因素对企业价值的影响。最后以上市公司中南传媒为例说明如何应用本文提出的方法。     

基于PROMETHEE-II的商户小额贷款信用评级模型及实证

截至2014年底,中国注册个体工商户为4984.06万户,个体私营经济吸纳社会从业人员已达2.5亿人,加上中国商户小额贷款对象的分散性、财务信息不健全等特点和难点,商户小额贷款信用评级体系极不完善,甚至绝大多数银行都没有建立这个体系。本文通过相关分析剔除反映信息重复的指标,通过显著性判别遴选对商户违约状态影响显著的指标,建立了能显著区分商户违约状态的小额贷款信用评级指标体系。在此基础上,结合PROMETHEE-II(偏好顺序结构)和聚类分析方法,构建了商户小额贷款信用评级模型,并对中国某国有商业银行2157个商户小额贷款样本进行了实证。本文创新与特色:一是通过将偏好顺序结构评估法(PROMETHEE-II)引入商户小额贷款信用评级,构建了基于PROMETHEE-II的小额贷款信用评分模型,求解商户的净流量信用得分Φ(a),揭示了商户a与其余商户、评价指标间的相互作用对评价结果的影响,避免了现有研究由于评价指标之间的相互替代性、严重影响评价结果可靠性的不足。二是借鉴模糊聚类“数据越集中、越应该被分为一类”的思想,采用R聚类对商户信用得分进行分类;进而采用K-W检验,对分类数目l进行非参数检验,确定商户的信用等级。既保证了不同等级商户在信用得分数值上存在显著差异,也确保了不同等级商户能反映不同的信用特征;同时,也避免了现有利用信用得分区间、违约概率阈值或客户数分布方法划分信用等级时,得分区间、违约概率阈值或客户数分布分位点人为主观确定的不足。三是实证研究表明,影响商户小额贷款信用风险的重要性排序依次为:X₃偿债能力>X₁基本情况>X₆宏观环境>X₅营运能力>X₂保证联保>X₄盈利能力。     

Fuzzy neural network modeling for product development

A fairly general product development model is formulated and analyzed based on multiple attribute decision making with emphasis on the treatment of the linguistic and vague aspects by fuzzy logic and up-dating or learning by neural network. Due to the representative ability of fuzzy set theory and the learning or intelligent ability of neural network, the proposed approaches appear to be an effective tool for handling vague and not well-defined systems.     

模糊影响图评价算法在供应链金融信用风险评估中的应用

传统的银行信贷模式风险评价专注于个体企业的财务数据.供应链金融新融资模式下的信用风险评价不同于传统的融资模式风险评价,它的评价范围更宽,不确定性因素更加复杂.在分析供应链金融模式的信用风险评价体系的基础上,结合模糊集和影响图理论建立了模糊影响图评价模型,对评估中难以量化的问题进行模糊处理,对变量之间的模糊影响关系进行分析,最后计算出信用风险概率分布.方法定性与定量相结合,为供应链金融新模式下的风险评估提供了一种新思路.     

基于犹豫模糊语言环境的投资组合优化研究

跟传统模糊投资组合相比,基于犹豫模糊语言环境的投资组合不仅可以使用自然语言对金融资产及其不确定程度进行评价,还可以避免评价过程中信息的丢失。本文根据犹豫模糊语言投资组合综合评价系统,对不同金融产品计算得分。通过设置不同的语言尺度函数的参数值及犹豫模糊语言优化模型的临界值,针对激进型、稳健型和保守型三类投资者分别提出了收益最大化和风险最小化犹豫模糊语言投资组合模型,对建立的非线性模型进行求解,得到犹豫模糊语言投资组合的最优解。最后,用数值仿真验证了模型的合理性和有效性。     

Reinforcement learning in neurofuzzy traffic signal control

A fuzzy traffic signal controller uses simple “if–then” rules which involve linguistic concepts such as medium or long, presented as membership functions. In neurofuzzy traffic signal control, a neural network adjusts the fuzzy controller by fine-tuning the form and location of the membership functions. The learning algorithm of the neural network is reinforcement learning, which gives credit for successful system behavior and punishes for poor behavior; those actions that led to success tend to be chosen more often in the future. The objective of the learning is to minimize the vehicular delay caused by the signal control policy. In simulation experiments, the learning algorithm is found successful at constant traffic volumes: the new membership functions produce smaller vehicular delay than the initial membership functions.     

基于多分类支持向量机的评估模型研究

支持向量机中的参数直接影响其推广能力,针对参数选取的主观性,提出基于改进的遗传算法优化其参数,并将其应用于银行个人信用的五等级分类问题中,针对多分类问题,设计了3个二值分类器,不同分类的参数不同,通过实验证实可以达到更精细的分类效果.     

Downward migration credit risk problem: a non-homogeneous backward semi-Markov reliability approach

International organizations evaluate credit risk and rank firms according to risk by assigning them a ‘rating’. The time evolution of a rating can be studied by means of Markov models. Some papers have outlined the problem pertaining to the unsuitable fitting of Markov processes in a credit risk environment. This paper presents a model that overcomes the problems given by the Markov rating models. It includes non-homogeneity, the downward problem and the randomness of time in the transitions of states, thus making it possible to consider the duration inside a state in a complete way. In this paper, both, the transient and asymptotic analyses are presented. The asymptotic analysis is performed by using a mono-unireducible topological structure. Moreover, a real data application is conducted using the historical database of Standard & Poor’s as the source.     

Fuzzy adaptive networks in thermal comfort

Thermal comfort is very important in any work or operation environment. But “thermal comfort” is a very vague and not easily defined term, and it is influenced by both the physical environment and the individual’s physiology or psychology. To at least partially overcome these problems, this work proposes the use of a fuzzy adaptive network (FAN) to model the thermal comfort system. To illustrate the approach, actual experimental data were used to train the network and to give results. Although only very simple examples were used, the results show the usefulness of the proposed approach.     

On a multiple credit rating migration model with stochastic interest rate

In this paper, we explore a pricing model for corporate bond accompanied with multiple credit rating migration risk and stochastic interest rate. The bond price volatility strongly depends on potentially multiple credit rating migration and stochastic change of interest rate. A free boundary problem of partial differential equation is presented, which is the equivalent transformation of the pricing model. The existence, uniqueness, and regularity for the free boundary problem are established to guarantee the rationality of the pricing model. Due to the stochastic change of interest rate, the discontinuous coefficient in the free boundary problem depends explicitly on the time variable but is convergent as time tends to infinity. Accordingly, an auxiliary free boundary problem is constructed, whose coefficient is the convergent limit of the coefficient in the original free boundary problem. With some constraint on the risk discount rate satisfied, we prove that a unique traveling wave exists in the auxiliary free boundary problem. The inductive method is adopted to fit the multiplicity of credit rating. Then we show that the solution of the original free boundary problem converges to the traveling wave in the auxiliary free boundary problem. Returning to the pricing model with multiple credit rating migration and stochastic interest rate, we conclude that the bond price profile can be captured by a traveling wave pattern coupling with a guaranteed bond price with face value equal to one at the maturity.     

A bi‐level neural‐based fuzzy classification approach for credit scoring problems

The credit scoring is a risk evaluation task considered as a critical decision for financial institutions in order to avoid wrong decision that may result in huge amount of losses. Classification models are one of the most widely used groups of data mining approaches that greatly help decision makers and managers to reduce their credit risk of granting credits to customers instead of intuitive experience or portfolio management. Accuracy is one of the most important criteria in order to choose a credit‐scoring model; and hence, the researches directed at improving upon the effectiveness of credit scoring models have never been stopped. In this article, a hybrid binary classification model, namely FMLP, is proposed for credit scoring, based on the basic concepts of fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks (ANNs). In the proposed model, instead of crisp weights and biases, used in traditional multilayer perceptrons (MLPs), fuzzy numbers are used in order to better model of the uncertainties and complexities in financial data sets. Empirical results of three well‐known benchmark credit data sets indicate that hybrid proposed model outperforms its component and also other those classification models such as support vector machines (SVMs), K‐nearest neighbor (KNN), quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA), and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Therefore, it can be concluded that the proposed model can be an appropriate alternative tool for financial binary classification problems, especially in high uncertainty conditions. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 18: 46–57, 2013