Banks excited by predictive analytics

Financial data mining has expanded recently with technology opening new data sources for inspection. Now, according to Computing, bank officers are able to accurately project future customer actions. These predictive analytics processes can make interactions between institutions and their members more efficient.

The source specified that, as banks issue credit cards and track their activity, the institutions have access to a wealth of purchase data. Modern analytics methods can turn that information into a prediction of future customer behavior. A bank can tailor offers based on customer information, hoping to induce cardholders into making new purchases.

"Banks have been asking [my firm], 'How can you process the data to help us build loyalty with that customer? So that if a customer is to buy an item, we can do something to make that purchase happen on our credit card, rather than on a competitor's credit card,'" analytics officer Andrew Jennings told the source.

Predictive analytics is still an emerging field, one that demands specific skills of its users. Analyst Jennifer Golec told TechTarget that an ideal predictive analytics user can manage huge quantities of data, be able to build multivariable models with it and make the data tell a story in terms of real value.