ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 26
SPECIAL REPORT > INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Do You Do What the
Data Tell You?
The rise of prescriptive analytics, the 'fourth frontier' in big data.
BY EVAN SPARKS
B
anks are on the forefront of the growth of using
"big data" to inform and even drive business
decisions. And as computing power grows and the
uses proliferate for the data that banks control,
data science is rapidly moving to provide its users
with prescriptive power and new tools to automate and
advance business decisions.
For Cheryl Gurz, SVP for operations at the Bancorp in
Wilmington, Del., "prescriptive analytics" is the fourth
frontier in the evolution of data. "This is where tomorrow is
going," she says. This fourth phase follows basic reporting
of data (such as through Bank Secrecy Act Suspicious
Activity Reports), followed by descriptive analytics (digging
into amassed data to answer specific questions) and
predictive analytics, which Gurz notes involves "predicting
the likely future outcome of events often leveraging
structured and unstructured data from a variety of sources."
The goal, she says, is for banks to answer the "what
if" questions, constructing models of decisions that
simultaneously address differing scenarios, provide insights
that involve a vast array of relevant data and provide
preferred solutions to thorny problems.
For example, Gurz recalled a bank that was exploring
whether to offer insurance in its local market. A data
scientist looked at all the ZIP codes in the bank's footprint
and incorporated a database of weather events. The
answer: "Nope! We are making loans to areas that have
high weather patterns with losses, and we don't want to
sell insurance because the payouts have a probability of
being high."
26
ABA BANKING JOURNAL | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016
Banks have generally led in analytics, with 71 percent of
banks using big data to improve operations, compared with
60 percent across all industries, according to an IBM survey.
"Financial services are far ahead of the rest of the industry,"
says IBM's Michael Maxwell, who, like Gurz, was a featured
speaker at the ABA/BAFT Global Payments Symposium in
New York earlier this year. As banks continue to build on the
promise of prescriptive analytics, they're finding applications
for these tools in three key areas: growing the bank's
business, gaining operational efficiencies and facilitating
regulatory compliance.
Finding scarcer growth opportunities
"In this economic environment, how do banks obtain
growth?" Gurz asks. "Growth isn't easy anymore." With
margins squeezed and the best credits picked, banks are
turning to prescriptive analytics to help them find every
opportunity and make sure they don't leave money on
the table.
At Canada's TD Cards-a division of the TD Bank Group, a
global banking company based in Toronto with a large U.S.
operation-managers were looking to grow their $9.5 billion
(U.S.) credit card portfolio with 5 million active accounts, all
without changing their risk appetite.
TD worked with the data and
analytics company FICO to
develop a solution. They created
a sample customer and identified
several "custom decision keys," as
TD's Clifford King calls them, such
as whether she maintains a stable
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016
Chairman’s View
Upfront
Picture This
Banking’s ‘Amazon Moment’
Special Report on Innovation and Technology
Building an ‘Internet of Value’
Do You Do What the Data Tell You?
Innovation in the Bank
Core Exercises
Cover Story Pillar of Her Community
Maintaining a Commitment to Ag Customers
Who You Gonna Call?
Anti-Money Laundering
Power Up Profile
Compliance ‘When Can I Call My Customer?’
Risk Management
ABA Compliance Center Inbox
From the States
Corporate Social Responsibility
Index of Advertisers
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - bellyband1
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - bellyband2
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - cover1
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - cover2
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 3
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 4
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 5
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 6
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 7
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Chairman’s View
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 9
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 10
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Upfront
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 12
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 13
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 14
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 15
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Picture This
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 17
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 18
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 19
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Special Report on Innovation and Technology
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 21
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 22
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Building an ‘Internet of Value’
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 24
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 25
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Do You Do What the Data Tell You?
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 27
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - insert1
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - insert2
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Innovation in the Bank
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 29
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 30
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Core Exercises
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Cover Story Pillar of Her Community
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 33
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 34
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 35
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 36
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 37
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Maintaining a Commitment to Ag Customers
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 39
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 40
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Who You Gonna Call?
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 42
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 43
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Anti-Money Laundering
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 45
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 46
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Power Up Profile
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 48
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Compliance ‘When Can I Call My Customer?’
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 50
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Risk Management
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - ABA Compliance Center Inbox
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 53
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 54
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - From the States
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - 56
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Corporate Social Responsibility
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - Index of Advertisers
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - cover3
ABA Banking Journal - November/December 2016 - cover4
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