Sample selection bias in credit scoring models

One of the aims of credit scoring models is to predict the probability of repayment of any applicant and yet such models are usually parameterised using a sample of accepted applicants only. This may lead to biased estimates of the parameters. In this paper we examine two issues. First, we compare the classification accuracy of a model based only on accepted applicants, relative to one based on a sample of all applicants. We find only a minimal difference, given the cutoff scores for the old model used by the data supplier. Using a simulated model we examine the predictive performance of models estimated from bands of applicants, ranked by predicted creditworthiness. We find that the lower the risk band of the training sample, the less accurate the predictions for all applicants. We also find that the lower the risk band of the training sample, the greater the overestimate of the true performance of the model, when tested on a sample of applicants within the same risk band — as a financial institution would do. The overestimation may be very large. Second, we examine the predictive accuracy of a bivariate probit model with selection (BVP). This parameterises the accept–reject model allowing for (unknown) omitted variables to be correlated with those of the original good–bad model. The BVP model may improve accuracy if the loan officer has overridden a scoring rule. We find that a small improvement when using the BVP model is sometimes possible.     

A profit-based scoring system in consumer credit: making acquisition decisions for credit cards

Consumer credit scoring is one of the most successful applications of quantitative analysis in business with nearly every major lender using charge-off models to make decisions. Yet banks do not extend credit to control charge-off, but to secure profit. So, while charge-off models work well in rank-ordering the loan default costs associated with lending and are ubiquitous throughout the industry, the equivalent models on the revenue side are not being used despite the need. This paper outlines a profit-based scoring system for credit cards to be used for acquisition decisions by addressing three issues. First, the paper explains why credit card profit models—as opposed to cost or charge-off models—have been difficult to build and implement. Second, a methodology for modelling revenue on credit cards at application is proposed. Finally, acquisition strategies are explored that use both a spend model and a charge-off model to balance tradeoffs between charge-off, revenue, and volume.     

Credit scoring,augmentation and lean models

If a credit scoring model is built using only applicants who have been previously accepted for credit such a non-random sample selection may produce bias in the estimated model parameters and accordingly the model's predictions of repayment performance may not be optimal. Previous empirical research suggests that omission of rejected applicants has a detrimental impact on model estimation and prediction. This paper explores the extent to which, given the previous cutoff score applied to decide on accepted applicants, the number of included variables influences the efficacy of a commonly used reject inference technique, reweighting. The analysis benefits from the availability of a rare sample, where virtually no applicant was denied credit. The general indication is that the efficacy of reject inference is little influenced by either model leanness or interaction between model leanness and the rejection rate that determined the sample. However, there remains some hint that very lean models may benefit from reject inference where modelling is conducted on data characterized by a very high rate of applicant rejection.     

A comparison of strategies to develop a customer default scoring model

Behavioural scoring models are generally used to estimate the probability that a customer of a financial institution who owns a credit product will default on this product in a fixed time horizon. However, one single customer usually purchases many credit products from an institution while behavioural scoring models generally treat each of these products independently. In order to make credit risk management easier and more efficient, it is interesting to develop customer default scoring models. These models estimate the probability that a customer of a certain financial institution will have credit issues with at least one product in a fixed time horizon. In this study, three strategies to develop customer default scoring models are described. One of the strategies is regularly utilized by financial institutions and the other two will be proposed herein. The performance of these strategies is compared by means of an actual data bank supplied by a financial institution and a Monte Carlo simulation study.     

An empirical comparison of conventional techniques,neural networks and the three stage hybrid Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) model for credit scoring analysis: The case of Turkish credit card data

The number of Non-Performing Loans has increased in recent years, paralleling the current financial crisis, thus increasing the importance of credit scoring models. This study proposes a three stage hybrid Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System credit scoring model, which is based on statistical techniques and Neuro Fuzzy. The proposed model’s performance was compared with conventional and commonly utilized models. The credit scoring models are tested using a 10-fold cross-validation process with the credit card data of an international bank operating in Turkey. Results demonstrate that the proposed model consistently performs better than the Linear Discriminant Analysis, Logistic Regression Analysis, and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approaches, in terms of average correct classification rate and estimated misclassification cost. As with ANN, the proposed model has learning ability; unlike ANN, the model does not stay in a black box. In the proposed model, the interpretation of independent variables may provide valuable information for bankers and consumers, especially in the explanation of why credit applications are rejected.     

A literature review on the application of evolutionary computing to credit scoring

The last years have seen the development of many credit scoring models for assessing the creditworthiness of loan applicants. Traditional credit scoring methodology has involved the use of statistical and mathematical programming techniques such as discriminant analysis, linear and logistic regression, linear and quadratic programming, or decision trees. However, the importance of credit grant decisions for financial institutions has caused growing interest in using a variety of computational intelligence techniques. This paper concentrates on evolutionary computing, which is viewed as one of the most promising paradigms of computational intelligence. Taking into account the synergistic relationship between the communities of Economics and Computer Science, the aim of this paper is to summarize the most recent developments in the application of evolutionary algorithms to credit scoring by means of a thorough review of scientific articles published during the period 2000–2012.     

Neural network survival analysis for personal loan data

Traditionally, credit scoring aimed at distinguishing good payers from bad payers at the time of the application. The timing when customers default is also interesting to investigate since it can provide the bank with the ability to do profit scoring. Analysing when customers default is typically tackled using survival analysis. In this paper, we discuss and contrast statistical and neural network approaches for survival analysis. Compared to the proportional hazards model, neural networks may offer an interesting alternative because of their universal approximation property and the fact that no baseline hazard assumption is needed. Several neural network survival analysis models are discussed and evaluated according to their way of dealing with censored observations, time-varying inputs, the monotonicity of the generated survival curves and their scalability. In the experimental part, we contrast the performance of a neural network survival analysis model with that of the proportional hazards model for predicting both loan default and early repayment using data from a UK financial institution.     

An intelligent-agent-based fuzzy group decision making model for financial multicriteria decision support: The case of credit scoring

Credit risk analysis is an active research area in financial risk management and credit scoring is one of the key analytical techniques in credit risk evaluation. In this study, a novel intelligent-agent-based fuzzy group decision making (GDM) model is proposed as an effective multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) tool for credit risk evaluation. In this proposed model, some artificial intelligent techniques, which are used as intelligent agents, are first used to analyze and evaluate the risk levels of credit applicants over a set of pre-defined criteria. Then these evaluation results, generated by different intelligent agents, are fuzzified into some fuzzy opinions on credit risk level of applicants. Finally, these fuzzification opinions are aggregated into a group consensus and meantime the fuzzy aggregated consensus is defuzzified into a crisp aggregated value to support final decision for decision-makers of credit-granting institutions. For illustration and verification purposes, a simple numerical example and three real-world credit application approval datasets are presented.     

基于迁移学习的客户信用评估模型研究

客户信用评估是银行等金融企业日常经营活动中的重要组成部分。一般违约样本在客户总体中只占少数,而能按时还款客户样本占多数,这就是客户信用评估中常见的类别不平衡问题。目前,用于客户信用评估的方法尚不能有效解决少数类样本稀缺带来的类别不平衡。本研究引入迁移学习技术整合系统内外部信息,以解决少数类样本稀缺带来的类别不平衡问题。为了提高对来自系统外部少数类样本信息的使用效率,构建了一种新的迁移学习模型:以基于集成技术的迁移装袋模型为基础,使用两阶段抽样和数据分组处理技术分别对其基模型生成和集成策略进行改进。运用重庆某商业银行信用卡客户数据进行的实证研究结果表明:与目前客户信用评估的常用方法相比,新模型能更好地处理绝对稀缺条件下类别不平衡对客户信用评估的影响,特别对占少数的违约客户有更好的预测精度。     

European generic scoring models using survival analysis

Credit scoring discriminates between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ credit risks to assist credit-grantors in making lending decisions. Such discrimination may not be a good indicator of profit, while survival analysis allows profit to be modelled. The paper explores the application of parametric accelerated failure time and proportional hazards models and Cox non-parametric model to the data from the retail card (revolving credit) from three European countries. The predictive performance of three national models is tested for different timescales of default and then compared to that of a single generic model for a timescale of 25 months. It is found that survival analysis national and generic models produce predictive quality, which is very close to the current industry standard—logistic regression. Stratification is investigated as a way of extending Cox non-parametric proportional hazards model to tackle heterogeneous segments in the population.     

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     

Support vector machines for classifying and describing credit applicants: detecting typical and critical regions

Credit applicants are assigned to good or bad risk classes according to their record of defaulting. Each applicant is described by a high-dimensional input vector of situational characteristics and by an associated class label. A statistical model, which maps the inputs to the labels, can decide whether a new credit applicant should be accepted or rejected, by predicting the class label given the new inputs. Support vector machines (SVM) from statistical learning theory can build such models from the data, requiring extremely weak prior assumptions about the model structure. Furthermore, SVM divide a set of labelled credit applicants into subsets of ‘typical’ and ‘critical’ patterns. The correct class label of a typical pattern is usually very easy to predict, even with linear classification methods. Such patterns do not contain much information about the classification boundary. The critical patterns (the support vectors) contain the less trivial training examples. For instance, linear discriminant analysis with prior training subset selection via SVM also leads to improved generalization. Using non-linear SVM, more ‘surprising’ critical regions may be detected, but owing to the relative sparseness of the data, this potential seems to be limited in credit scoring practice.     

Bound and collapse Bayesian reject inference for credit scoring

Reject inference is a method for inferring how a rejected credit applicant would have behaved had credit been granted. Credit-quality data on rejected applicants are usually missing not at random (MNAR). In order to infer credit-quality data MNAR, we propose a flexible method to generate the probability of missingness within a model-based bound and collapse Bayesian technique. We tested the method's performance relative to traditional reject-inference methods using real data. Results show that our method improves the classification power of credit scoring models under MNAR conditions.     

A comparison of neural networks and linear scoring models in the credit union environment

The purpose of the present paper is to explore the ability of neural networks such as multilayer perceptrons and modular neural networks, and traditional techniques such as linear discriminant analysis and logistic regression, in building credit scoring models in the credit union environment. Also, since funding and small sample size often preclude the use of customized credit scoring models at small credit unions, we investigate the performance of generic models and compare them with customized models. Our results indicate that customized neural networks offer a very promising avenue if the measure of performance is percentage of bad loans correctly classified. However, if the measure of performance is percentage of good and bad loans correctly classified, logistic regression models are comparable to the neural networks approach. The performance of generic models was not as good as the customized models, particularly when it came to correctly classifying bad loans. Although we found significant differences in the results for the three credit unions, our modular neural network could not accommodate these differences, indicating that more innovative architectures might be necessary for building effective generic models.     

A dynamic scorecard for monitoring baseline performance with application to tracking a mortgage portfolio

A principled technique for monitoring the performance of a consumer credit scorecard through time is derived from Kalman filtering. Standard approaches sporadically compare certain characteristics of the new applicants with those predicted from the scorecard. The new approach systematically updates the scorecard combining new applicant information with the previous best estimate. The dynamically updated scorecard is tracked through time and compared to limits calculated by sequential simulation from the baseline scorecard. The observation equation of the Kalman filter is tailored to take the results of fitting local scorecards by logistic regression to batches of new clients that arrive in the current time interval. The states in the Kalman filter represent the true or underlying score for each attribute in the card: the parameters of the logistic regression. Their progress in time is modelled by a random walk and the filter provides the best estimate of the scores using past and present information. We illustrate the technique using a commercial mortgage portfolio and the results indicate significant emerging deficiencies in the baseline scorecard.     

互联网环境下消费信贷行为研究

采用结构方程建模方法,实证分析了感知易用性、感知有用性、感知风险、信用卡效应及使用的态度与互联网环境下消费者使用信用卡支付的意愿之间的作用路径关系,从而建立了互联网环境下消费信贷行为影响因素的概念模型．研究表明,除感知风险与使用的意愿之间存在负相关关系外,其余四个因素与使用的意愿之间均存在正相关关系,其中使用的态度对使用的意愿的影响最大．     

Reject inference,augmentation, and sample selection

Many researchers see the need for reject inference in credit scoring models to come from a sample selection problem whereby a missing variable results in omitted variable bias. Alternatively, practitioners often see the problem as one of missing data where the relationship in the new model is biased because the behaviour of the omitted cases differs from that of those who make up the sample for a new model. To attempt to correct for this, differential weights are applied to the new cases. The aim of this paper is to see if the use of both a Heckman style sample selection model and the use of sampling weights, together, will improve predictive performance compared with either technique used alone. This paper will use a sample of applicants in which virtually every applicant was accepted. This allows us to compare the actual performance of each model with the performance of models which are based only on accepted cases.     

Stress testing credit card portfolios: an application in South Africa

Motivated by a real problem, this study aims to develop models to conduct stress testing on credit card portfolios. Two modelling approaches were extended to include the impact of lenders’ actions within the model. The first approach was a regression model of the aggregate losses based on economic variables with autocorrelations of the errors. The second approach was a set of vintage-level models that highlighted the months-on-book effect on credit losses. A case study using the models was described using South African credit card data. In this case, the models were used to stress test the credit card portfolio under several economic scenarios.     

Recent developments in consumer credit risk assessment

Consumer credit risk assessment involves the use of risk assessment tools to manage a borrower’s account from the time of pre-screening a potential application through to the management of the account during its life and possible write-off. The riskiness of lending to a credit applicant is usually estimated using a logistic regression model though researchers have considered many other types of classifier and whilst preliminary evidence suggest support vector machines seem to be the most accurate, data quality issues may prevent these laboratory based results from being achieved in practice. The training of a classifier on a sample of accepted applicants rather than on a sample representative of the applicant population seems not to result in bias though it does result in difficulties in setting the cut off. Profit scoring is a promising line of research and the Basel 2 accord has had profound implications for the way in which credit applicants are assessed and bank policies adopted.     

马尔可夫链模型在信用卡账户行为变化预测中的应用

对信用卡账户行为变化的监控是降低信用卡风险的关键.论文在构建马尔可夫模型的基础上,讨论了在信用卡账户无新增贷款、新增贷款固定不变和新增贷款发生周期性变化的情况下,如何预测信用卡账户不同状态的金额、已偿付态和坏账态的金额、全部应收款的现值及它们的方差计算等内容,为信用卡账户行为变化的预测、管理提供了方法和依据.