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Power Tools 1993 November - Disc 2
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Power Tools Plus (Disc 2 of 2)(November 1993)(HP).iso
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wsyhl
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scslyon
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scslyon.txt
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1993-04-20
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HEWLETT-PACKARD WORKSTATIONS AT WORK AT...
Credit Lyonnais -- Paris, France
Credit Lyonnais has learned the value of using detailed
statistical analysis to play a key role in focusing the bank's
retail lending and credit strategies. As one of Europe's
largest retail banks, Credit Lyonnais is aware that the ability
to fine tune its policies in this way will have a significant
impact on the profitability of its lending and credit operations
in retail branches.
Based in Paris, the Groupe de Recherche Operationnelle (GRO) is a
small specialist team of mathematicians and statisticians that
operates within Credit Lyonnais as an in-house consulting
service. GRO's ability to refine a mass of statistical data
into a meaningful analysis upon which to base policy decisions
has made its work of value in many areas of the banks'
activities. In addition to developing the bank's retail credit
scoring methodologies, GRO is also involved in the evaluation of
new capital markets products and financial instruments, and in
the targeting of direct mail strategies to maximize response.
Sophisticated statistical analysis
All the GRO's research projects begin with large volumes of
statistical data which must eventually be refined into a
practical strategy that will help to optimize the bank's
performance while minimizing its risk exposure.
Bruno Moatti, in the GRO, explained a typical project: "In credit
scoring we will usually analyze a sample of 4000 customer
profiles, split equally between good and bad risk accounts.
"The data contains raw information on the customer, such as
income, age, family details, employment details, and the history
of their account behavior -- such as if they make regular
savings, maintain an overdraft, or have ever exceeded an agreed
overdraft limit. Certain criteria such as the sex of the account
holder are not allowed to be used.
"We then undertake a variety of both factor and discriminant
analysis. The process takes some time and involves the
continuous analysis and re-analysis of the data, until we have
arrived at the optimum series of results. This information is
then distilled into a simple-to-use method of credit scoring
which the bank's personnel in its many retail branches can use
for approving credit and loan applications."
Assuming a strategic importance
With retail banks throughout Europe forced by the difficult
economic circumstances to constantly monitor their lending
policies, the work of the GRO has recently assumed even greater
importance. In many instances the difference between profit and
loss in a bank's retailing operations is the ability to control
risks and reduce the level of bad debt.
The GRO's credit scoring analysis allows Credit Lyonnais to be
more sensitive in identifying and measuring potential risks,
offering the bank a vital competitive edge in assessing which of
its customers are likely to be good or bad risks.
To assist them in the manipulation and analysis of data the GRO
uses the SAS System, a sophisticated software application from
the SAS Institute. This gives users complete control over data
access, management, analysis, and presentation.
Productivity benefits
Bruno Moatti finds one of the key benefits of the SAS System lies
in its powerful data management facilities. #Using our previous
software, we needed to pre-program new data files in Fortran.
This could take several days just to prepare the files for
analysis. Using SAS, the same task takes only a few hours.
This means that we are able to spend more time refining the raw
information and conducting even more thorough analysis, rather
than using our time as programmers."
Added power of new workstations
The GRO system consists of a network of HP Apollo workstations.
They are linked together on a local area network with a number
of PCs to help provide wider access to the group's information
resources.
Credit Lyonnais was among the first of the leading French banks
to use HP's Series 700 family of high-performance PA-RISC
workstations and they are now used for a number of applications
within the bank.
The added power that is a notable feature of the HP workstations
has also proved highly valuable, as Moatti confirms. "With the
high performance of the HP workstations, we are now able to
handle larger samples more efficiently. The fact that we are
able to base our work on a larger cross-section gives it a
stronger empirical basis."
Because the underlying economic circumstances which influence
both the bank and its customers are constantly changing, the
GRO's research is also continually monitored and reviewed. A
policy that is ideal today, may well become inappropriate in a
few short months. The productivity gains offered by the new
system allows the GRO to concentrate all its efforts on keeping
the analysis up to date.
Presentation of data - the SAS System
Dealing with such a complex array of statistical information, it
is not surprising that the GRO, like many other users, enjoys
the SAS System's wide range of data presentation facilities. A
variety of presentation features help to communicate the
significance of complex and sophisticated research through
simple graphic displays. An integrated allows users to create
their own reporting models, templates, and graphs. These
features have established the SAS System as a market leader in
data analysis and presentation.
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