Monthly card spend at HSBC has risen 15 per cent following a rollout of AI mathematical optimisation technology.

HSBC said that its decision to implement the technology several years ago forms part of its "digital journey" strategy, which has seen the bank aim to facilitate easy-to-use and tailored customer experiences to improve long-term revenue growth. Its credit card portfolio was one of the areas it planned to target for sustainable and responsible growth.

The technology, developed by FICO, has enabled the bank to adjust credit limits to customer risk, reward and engagement levels.

“Setting new credit limits through testing programmes is inefficient, and could damage customer relationships,” said HSBC head of unsecured retail risk Mike Roberts.

He went on to say that by using mathematical optimisation, HSBC has been able to instead simulate responses to customer engagement, levels of spend, activations, loss rates, profitability and customer outcomes, whilst factoring in changes in economic and regulatory conditions.

The technology has also allowed the bank to target offers to customers that want and would use a credit line increase.

“The ability to test vast decision strategy possibilities, inter-relationships and subsequent permutations in volumes and scenarios is way beyond the capacity of the human brain to calculate,” said Roberts. “At the same time, we are executing explainable decision strategies that provide the visibility and certainty to know that we are doing the right thing for customers.”

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