Citi turns to AI for the early work in approval of corporate loans – and chooses Hong Kong for first testing
- Earlier, AI has been tapped to help out on retail consumer loans
- AI will free up time for bank staff to focus on whether to actually give the green light to corporate loans
US banking giant Citigroup has begun tapping artificial intelligence to analyse companies’ financial statements in the approval process for corporate loans – an unusual step because to date AI technology has concentrated on retail consumer loans.
Citigroup developed the technology and chose Hong Kong for its first tests.
The technology enables computers to scan and read hard copies of clients’ financial statements and automatically calculate indicators such as current ratio and leverage ratio, Anson Kwok, head of commercial bank at Citi Hong Kong, said in an interview.
Bankers will use the results to decide whether and how much to lend to a company.
“Client experience will improve in the end because we will do things faster and make fewer mistakes,” Kwok said.