Summary of Predictive Insights
Top 3 Risk Factors
Employment Status: Unemployed customers have a higher rate of
delinquency compared to those who are employed or self-employed. This
indicates a strong link between consistent income and timely payments.
Credit Card Type: Customers with a Business credit card show a
surprisingly high delinquency rate. This may suggest that a significant portion
of these customers are small business owners who face unique financial
pressures.
Credit Utilization: While not a strong individual predictor, customers flagged
as delinquent have a slightly higher average credit utilization, indicating that
higher debt levels relative to available credit could contribute to a higher risk
of missed payments.
Business Recommendation Framework
SMART Recommendation
Specific: Launch a targeted early intervention program for new customers identified
as high-risk, focusing specifically on unemployed individuals or business cardholders.
Measurable: Aim to reduce the delinquency rate within this high-risk segment by
15% within the next six months. Achievable: The program will utilize proactive
communication (e.g., automated reminders, personalized financial advice via SMS or
email) to address potential issues before they escalate. Relevant: This program will
directly address key risk factors identified in our analysis, leading to a decrease in
delinquency rates and a reduction in collection costs. Time-bound: The program will
be implemented and its effectiveness will be measured over a six-month period, with
a full review at the end of the term.
Ethical and Responsible AI
Considerations
Fairness Risks and Mitigation
Risk 1: Socioeconomic Bias The model might disproportionately flag
customers in certain employment categories (e.g., Unemployed) as high-risk,
potentially creating a feedback loop where these groups are offered fewer
financial products or receive harsher terms.
Mitigation 1: We will use fairness metrics like the Disparate Impact Ratio
to continuously monitor the model's predictions across different employment
statuses. If a bias is detected, we will adjust the model's features or apply a re-
weighting technique to ensure fair and equitable outcomes for all customer
segments.
Risk 2: Algorithmic Transparency Using a complex model like a Gradient
Boosting Machine could make it difficult for stakeholders to understand why a
specific customer was flagged as high-risk. This lack of transparency could
hinder trust and make it difficult to explain decisions to regulators or
customers.
Mitigation 2: We will use model explainability techniques such as SHAP
(SHapley Additive exPlanations) values to provide clear, human-readable
explanations for each prediction. This will allow the collections team to
understand which features most influenced a customer's risk score, enabling
them to make more informed, empathetic, and explainable decisions.