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Deem, the UAE-based digitally-led financial services provider, in partnership with Singapore-headquartered StraitsBridge Advisors, has implemented a high performance artificial intelligence (AI) enabled real-time application scorecard system with the capability to continuously recalibrate and update their scorecard model.

The new scorecard system delivers increased accuracy in predicting the probability of default and scoring customer credit risk, in segmenting customers efficiently and reduces significantly manual effort required in Deem’s credit policy and underwriting processes.

With this, Deem is the first financial institution in the GCC region to adopt the innovative AI-enabled solution to manage credit risk. This enables Deem’s objective to provide its customers access to a wide range of highly competitive and affordable financial solutions.

Deem is backed by Mubadala Investment Company, Fullerton Financial Holdings, Waha Capital and A.A. Al Moosa Enterprises and provides financial support to individuals through credit cards, loans and corporate deposits. The company has loans and advances of over AED 1 billion in addition to deposits, and its offering is powered by a user-friendly digital platform, geared towards enhanced customer experience.

StraitsBridge Advisors, a Singapore-headquartered consulting and fintech firm, designed and developed the high-performance AI-enabled real-time credit application scorecard system. StraitsBridge developed the scorecards through advanced AI-driven classification methods for generating the probability of default (PD) with very high accuracy and performance. Keeping in pace with the current regulatory requirements and the standards set by regional regulatory bodies, the scorecard system includes functionalities and parameters to handle various regulatory environments.

Commenting on the implementation, Sanjay Uppal, Founder & CEO of StraitsBridge Advisors, said: “We are delighted to partner with Deem in their digital journey through implementation of GCC’s first AI-driven Credit Application Scorecard. Our solution allows financial institutions to significantly enhance customer experience, achieve efficiencies and optimize credit risk.”

Commenting on the deployment of their new Application Scorecard, Torsten Kleine Buening, Chief Risk Officer, Deem, said: “As part of our digital transformation, we are continuously looking for ways to enhance our customer experience. One of these is by using AI-enabled models, jointly developed with our partners StraitsBridge, we have made our application and underwriting process much more efficient so we can deliver sustainable offers to our customers, with a faster turnaround time, while driving down the cost of risk.”

A unique and advanced feature for this scorecard is its periodic AI-driven recalibration capability of scorecard engine and generation of personalised surface solution for effective recommendation of acceptable loans specific to a customer.

Additional benefits include generation of machine-learning driven policy rules, customizable control settings of scorecard recalibration engine, self-adjusting PD cutoff subjected to Population Stability Analysis, threshold setting of rejection ratio, master scale generation, and with exhaustive model reporting including optimal cutoff scenario reporting, optimization results, model hyper-parameter reporting, and variable Importance report.