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Thailand’s oldest lender Siam Commercial Bank(SCB) is using data analytics to simplify digital finance for consumers.
It has developed improved credit scoring and income estimation models with machine learning (ML) algorithms to boost loan approval rates and streamline the loan application process.
SCB’s principal data scientist, Ramestr Sasirajpornchai, said at a recent conference organised by Databricks that data is useful only based on the analytics and the application defined for it.
The bank serves 17 million customers out of which around 14 million use its mobile application and other digital services. It launched the SCB Easy app that handles 60-70 percent of the bank's total transactions.
“We have strengthened SCB Easy’s infrastructure to become a comprehensive digital banking platform,” he added.
Adopting the Databricks Lakehouse Platform, the bank leveraged a cloud-first strategy to democratise and shift its data approach, Sasirajpornchai said.
Offering flexibility
This has offered the tech teams the flexibility to “quickly” recalibrate the ML-based models in response to market changes enabling the bank to better monitor loan performance and make precise, data-driven decisions on day-to-day operations, he added.
The bank rolled out a new model via the Lakehouse to help customers to manage their accounts, including customised tracking of transactions and personalised recommendations.
“This enabled customers to actively grow financial health through data on individual spending patterns, risk appetites and other customer behaviour,” he said.
The company can also now approve loan applications “instantly” with features like income estimation, digital document processing and portfolio optimisation, he added.
These enhanced features have led to an increase in SCB's customer engagement on digital channels by over 40 percent in the past year, he added.
Digital wealth model
On the bank's future plans, CEO Kris Chantanotoke revealed that the bank is implementing Digital Wealth model for consumers seeking to broaden their investment portfolios with digital technologies.
It has set 7-10 billion baht (S$28-S$40 million) as IT and digital budget for the next three years to develop and upgrade digital financial solutions to offer a full range of services through online and offline channels.
More recently, SCB unveiled its new digital bond service on its apps as part of its digital banking strategy to facilitate retail bond investors. It also plans to add more digital bond features and services in the following upgrades.
