Home Credit Group Will Expand Credit in Eastern Europe and Asia with FICO AI-Powered Optimization

International consumer lender set to use advanced machine learning techniques to make the best credit offers in low and no credit history markets with FICO solution

Home Credit Group, which lends to underserved customers with little or no credit history, has chosen FICO Decision Optimizer to further improve its lending offers in multiple markets. The adoption of FICO’s AI-powered optimization follows a successful pilot in Russia, which delivered excellent results including significant profitability improvement on the targeted part of the loan portfolio, as well as an increase in new loan volumes.

“We pride ourselves on being a responsible lender whose decision-making in risk management is powered by advanced technology,” explained Radek Pluhar, Home Credit Group’s Chief Risk Officer. “We have a very clear understanding of the consumers we want to continue serving – they are often neglected by other lenders simply because of their lack of credit history. For them it’s vital that we are able to offer a loan with the best possible combination of the price and the loan size which fits their needs. FICO Decision Optimizer will help us to acquire these customers while meeting our demanding risk and reward targets. The advanced technology enables us to boost our competitive edge across our markets.”

Home Credit Group’s central team of data scientists and optimization experts will further develop country-specific solutions to optimize loan pricing in Kazakhstan and Vietnam initially, with plans to expand into other markets in the next phase.

“Pricing optimization can generate impressive results in just a few months,” said Petr Kapoun, Chief Risk Officer at Home Credit Russia. “FICO’s optimization approach brings a clear structure that easily accommodates numerous overlapping policy rules; at the same time, it builds our own analytics expertise into the final decision-making. Such a unique combination delivers truly significant business impact and we are continuously looking for its introduction into new applications areas.”

“We have built an excellent relationship with Home Credit Group’s risk team,” added Steve Hadaway, EMEA general manager for FICO. “They understand the potential that mathematical optimization can bring to an organization. Our pilot delivered outstanding results, giving the business the confidence to implement the solution for other markets targeted for growth amidst challenging environments.”

FICO Decision Optimizer, part of the FICO Platform, supports the entire lifecycle of designing, developing, executing and deploying decision optimization technology. Its advanced decision impact modelling, simulation and optimization techniques allow lenders to discover better decision strategies that balance trade-offs between cost, risk and reward, while also factoring in economic and market conditions.