Credit Card Portfolio Management Research Articles

Decision Rule Extraction for Regularized Multiple Criteria Linear Programming Model

Due to the flexibility of multi-criteria optimization, Regularized Multiple Criteria Linear Programming (RMCLP) has received attention in decision support systems. Numerous theoretical and empirical studies have demonstrated that RMCLP is effective and efficient in classifying large scale data sets. However, a possible limitation of RMCLP is poor interpretability and low comprehensibility for end users and experts. This deficiency has limited RMCLP’s use in many real-world applications where both accuracy and transparency of decision making are required, such as in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Credit Card Portfolio Management. In this paper, the authors present a clustering based rule extraction method to extract explainable and understandable rules from the RMCLP model. Experiments on both synthetic and real world data sets demonstrate that this rule extraction method can effectively extract explicit decision rules from RMCLP with only a small compromise in performance.

Several multi-criteria programming methods for classification

In this paper, we propose a general optimization-based model for classification. Then we show that some well-known optimization-based methods for classification, which were developed by Shi et al. [Data mining in credit card portfolio management: a multiple criteria decision making approac. In: Koksalan M, Zionts S, editors. Multiple criteria decision making in the new millennium. Berlin: Springer; 2001. p. 427–36] and Freed and Glover [A linear programming approach to the discriminant problem. Decision Sciences 1981; 12: 68–79; Simple but powerful goal programming models for discriminant problems. European Journal of Operational Research 1981; 7: 44–60], are special cases of our model. Moreover, three new models, MCQP (multi-criteria indefinite quadratic programming), MCCQP (multi-criteria concave quadratic programming) and MCVQP (multi-criteria convex programming), are developed based on the general model. We also propose algorithms for MCQP and MCCQP, respectively. Then we apply these models to three real-life problems: credit card accounts, VIP mail-box and social endowment insurance classification. Extensive experiments are done to compare the efficiency of these methods.

MCLP-based methods for improving “Bad” catching rate in credit cardholder behavior analysis

Cardholders’ behavior prediction is an important issue in credit card portfolio management. As a promising data mining approach, multiple criteria programming (MCLP) has been successfully applied to classify credit cardholders’ behavior into two groups. In order to better control credit risk for financial institutes, this paper proposes three methods based on MCLP to improve the “Bad” catching accuracy rate. One is called MCLP with unbalanced training set selection, the second is called fuzzy linear programming (FLP) method with moving boundary, and the third is called penalized multi criteria linear programming (PMCLP). The experimental examples demonstrate the promising performance of these methods.

CLASSIFYING CREDIT CARD ACCOUNTS FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND DECISION MAKING: A MULTIPLE-CRITERIA QUADRATIC PROGRAMMING APPROACH

A major challenge in credit card portfolio management is to classify and predict credit cardholders' behaviors in a reliable precision because cardholders' behaviors are rather dynamic in nature. This is crucial for creditors because it allows them to take proactive actions and minimize charge-off and bankruptcy losses. Although the methods used in the area of credit portfolio management have improved significantly, the demand for alternative and sophisticated analytical tools is still strong. The objective of this paper is to propose a multiple criteria quadratic programming (MCQP) to classify credit card accounts for business intelligence and decision making. MCQP is intended to predict credit cardholders' behaviors from a nonlinear perspective that is justifiable because both the objective functions and constraints in credit card accounts classification may be nonlinear. Using a real-life credit card dataset from a major US bank, the MCQP method is compared with popular and similar classification methods: linear discriminant analysis, decision tree, multiple criteria linear programming, support vector machine, and neural network. The results indicate that MCQP is a promising business intelligence method in credit card portfolio management.

Discovering Credit Cardholders’ Behavior by Multiple Criteria Linear Programming

In credit card portfolio management, predicting the cardholder's spending behavior is a key to reduce the risk of bankruptcy. Given a set of attributes for major aspects of credit cardholders and predefined classes for spending behaviors, this paper proposes a classification model by using multiple criteria linear programming to discover behavior patterns of credit cardholders. It shows a general classification model that can theoretically handle any class-size. Then, it focuses on a typical case where the cardholders' behaviors are predefined as four classes. A dataset from a major US bank is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF CREDIT CARDHOLDER BEHAVIOR BY USING FUZZY LINEAR PROGRAMMING

Behavior analysis of credit cardholders is one of the main research topics in credit card portfolio management. Usually, the cardholder's behavior, especially bankruptcy, is measured by a score of aggregate attributes that describe cardholder's spending history. In real-life practice, statistics and neural networks are the major players to calculate such a score system for prediction. Recently, various multiple linear programming-based classification methods have been promoted for analyzing credit cardholders' behaviors. As a continuation of this research direction, this paper proposes a heuristic classification method by using the fuzzy linear programming (FLP) to discover the bankruptcy patterns of credit cardholders. Instead of identifying a compromise solution for the separation of credit cardholder behaviors, this approach classifies the credit cardholder behaviors by seeking a fuzzy (satisfying) solution obtained from a fuzzy linear program. In this paper, a real-life credit database from a major US bank is used for empirical study which is compared with the results of known multiple linear programming approaches.