SEATTLE - Business intelligence (BI) makes BECU smarter about risk, according to Calvin Bierley, market research analyst at the $8-billion CU here.
BI helps keep a lid on the 2-year-old member segmentation program in which members are automatically qualified to withdraw more than the standard $500 from ATMs, as well as for higher provisional credit limits on check deposits, he said.
Members are placed into risk levels based on a regression scoring model built on BI data, explained Bierley. "The risk levels determine who can receive this extra access without putting the credit union at too much added risk."
Bierley continues to track withdrawal limits and usage for each member with BI data and the scoring solution, he said. So far, most of the 12,000 members in the program have remained low-risk, and BECU thus has been able to provide better service to members who don't have easy access to a branch, he added.
When BECU considers adding a new branch or ATM, however, BI again steps up to measure risk, said Bierley.
A site analysis tool reports the products and services held by member households within specified locations. Bierley plots that information against a current branch or ATM site to see if it's doing well or to predict whether a potential branch or ATM would fly, he said. The AnySite tool is provided by Pitney Bowes MapInfo.
"We do regression studies to see what characteristics of market go along with a successful or unsuccessful branch," said Bierley. "If we build in an area with a member base we're off to a much better start because a lot of our business is based on referrals. We'll also know the population, deposits and loans and can correlate that to the success of a site."
