IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v59y2008i7d10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602394.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards profitability: a utility approach to the credit scoring problem

Author

Listed:
  • S M Finlay

    (Lancaster University)

Abstract

Since credit scoring was first applied in the 1940s the standard methodology has been to treat consumer lending decisions as binary classification problems, where the goal has been to make the best possible ‘good/bad’ classification of accounts on the basis of their eventual delinquency status. However, the real goal of commercial lending organizations is to forecast continuous financial measures such as contribution to profit, but there has been little research in this area. In this paper, continuous models of customer worth are compared to binary models of customer repayment behaviour. Empirical results show that while models of customer worth do not perform well in terms of classifying accounts by their good/bad status, they significantly outperform standard classification methodologies when ranking accounts based on their financial worth to lenders.

Suggested Citation

  • S M Finlay, 2008. "Towards profitability: a utility approach to the credit scoring problem," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(7), pages 921-931, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:59:y:2008:i:7:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602394
    DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602394
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602394
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602394?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. H G Li & D J Hand, 2002. "Direct versus indirect credit scoring classifications," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 53(6), pages 647-654, June.
    2. D. J. Hand & W. E. Henley, 1997. "Statistical Classification Methods in Consumer Credit Scoring: a Review," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 160(3), pages 523-541, September.
    3. M Stepanova & L C Thomas, 2001. "PHAB scores: proportional hazards analysis behavioural scores," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 52(9), pages 1007-1016, September.
    4. R. M. Cyert & H. J. Davidson & G. L. Thompson, 1962. "Estimation of the Allowance for Doubtful Accounts by Markov Chains," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(3), pages 287-303, April.
    5. Steven Finlay, 2005. "Consumer Credit Fundamentals," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-50234-5, December.
    6. R M Oliver & E Wells, 2001. "Efficient frontier cutoff policies in credit portfolios," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 52(9), pages 1025-1033, September.
    7. B Baesens & T Van Gestel & S Viaene & M Stepanova & J Suykens & J Vanthienen, 2003. "Benchmarking state-of-the-art classification algorithms for credit scoring," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(6), pages 627-635, June.
    8. P Beling & Z Covaliu & R M Oliver, 2005. "Optimal scoring cutoff policies and efficient frontiers," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(9), pages 1016-1029, September.
    9. Alan Lucas, 2001. "Statistical challenges in credit card issuing," Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(1), pages 83-92, January.
    10. Maria Stepanova & Lyn Thomas, 2002. "Survival Analysis Methods for Personal Loan Data," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 277-289, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. R Fildes & K Nikolopoulos & S F Crone & A A Syntetos, 2008. "Forecasting and operational research: a review," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(9), pages 1150-1172, September.
    2. Krivorotov, George, 2023. "Machine learning-based profit modeling for credit card underwriting - implications for credit risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    3. Kaveh Bastani & Elham Asgari & Hamed Namavari, 2018. "Wide and Deep Learning for Peer-to-Peer Lending," Papers 1810.03466, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2018.
    4. Samuel Ribeiro-Navarrete & Juan Piñeiro-Chousa & M. Ángeles López-Cabarcos & Daniel Palacios-Marqués, 2022. "Crowdlending: mapping the core literature and research frontiers," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(8), pages 2381-2411, November.
    5. Sanchez-Barrios, Luis Javier & Andreeva, Galina & Ansell, Jake, 2016. "“Time-to-profit scorecards for revolving credit”," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(2), pages 397-406.
    6. Finlay, Steven, 2010. "Credit scoring for profitability objectives," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(2), pages 528-537, April.
    7. R T Stewart, 2011. "A profit-based scoring system in consumer credit: making acquisition decisions for credit cards," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(9), pages 1719-1725, September.
    8. Selcuk Bayraci, 2017. "Application of profit-based credit scoring models using R," Romanian Statistical Review, Romanian Statistical Review, vol. 65(4), pages 3-28, December.
    9. Baidoo, Edwin & Natarajan, Ramachandran, 2021. "Profit-based credit models with lender’s attitude towards risk and loss," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Finlay, Steven, 2010. "Credit scoring for profitability objectives," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(2), pages 528-537, April.
    2. R T Stewart, 2011. "A profit-based scoring system in consumer credit: making acquisition decisions for credit cards," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(9), pages 1719-1725, September.
    3. L C Thomas, 2010. "Consumer finance: challenges for operational research," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(1), pages 41-52, January.
    4. K Rajaratnam & P Beling & G Overstreet, 2010. "Scoring decisions in the context of economic uncertainty," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(3), pages 421-429, March.
    5. Richard Chamboko & Jorge M. Bravo, 2016. "On the modelling of prognosis from delinquency to normal performance on retail consumer loans," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(4), pages 264-287, December.
    6. T Bellotti & J Crook, 2009. "Credit scoring with macroeconomic variables using survival analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(12), pages 1699-1707, December.
    7. Andreeva, Galina & Ansell, Jake & Crook, Jonathan, 2007. "Modelling profitability using survival combination scores," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 183(3), pages 1537-1549, December.
    8. Jiang, Cuiqing & Wang, Zhao & Zhao, Huimin, 2019. "A prediction-driven mixture cure model and its application in credit scoring," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(1), pages 20-31.
    9. G Andreeva, 2006. "European generic scoring models using survival analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(10), pages 1180-1187, October.
    10. B Baesens & T Van Gestel & M Stepanova & D Van den Poel & J Vanthienen, 2005. "Neural network survival analysis for personal loan data," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(9), pages 1089-1098, September.
    11. Lore Dirick & Gerda Claeskens & Bart Baesens, 2017. "Time to default in credit scoring using survival analysis: a benchmark study," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(6), pages 652-665, June.
    12. Richard Chamboko & Jorge Miguel Bravo, 2020. "A Multi-State Approach to Modelling Intermediate Events and Multiple Mortgage Loan Outcomes," Risks, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-29, June.
    13. G Verstraeten & D Van den Poel, 2005. "The impact of sample bias on consumer credit scoring performance and profitability," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(8), pages 981-992, August.
    14. Sanchez-Barrios, Luis Javier & Andreeva, Galina & Ansell, Jake, 2016. "“Time-to-profit scorecards for revolving credit”," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(2), pages 397-406.
    15. Kanshukan Rajaratnam & Peter Beling & George Overstreet, 2017. "Regulatory capital decisions in the Context of consumer loan portfolios," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(7), pages 847-858, July.
    16. Finlay, Steven, 2011. "Multiple classifier architectures and their application to credit risk assessment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 210(2), pages 368-378, April.
    17. Dangxing Chen & Weicheng Ye & Jiahui Ye, 2022. "Interpretable Selective Learning in Credit Risk," Papers 2209.10127, arXiv.org.
    18. Dirick, Lore & Claeskens, Gerda & Baesens, Bart, 2015. "An Akaike information criterion for multiple event mixture cure models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 241(2), pages 449-457.
    19. L N Allen & L C Rose, 2006. "Financial survival analysis of defaulted debtors," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(6), pages 630-636, June.
    20. Adnan Dželihodžić & Dženana Đonko & Jasmin Kevrić, 2018. "Improved Credit Scoring Model Based on Bagging Neural Network," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(06), pages 1725-1741, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:59:y:2008:i:7:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602394. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.