Standard Bank selects PIC Solutions for randomiser service

PIC Solutions has been selected by Standard Bank of SA, one of Africa`s leading banking groups, to randomise accounts in its card portfolio. This randomisation exercise is a prerequisite to Standard Bank`s implementation of TRIAD.

TRIAD, from Fair Isaac Corporation, is the world`s leading adaptive control system and PIC Solutions is currently implementing TRIAD in Standard Bank.

One of the features of TRIAD is the ability to conduct Champion/Challenger testing. This enables credit, risk and marketing managers to test new strategies on small but representative samples of their portfolios. The testing is facilitated by randomly assigning a test digit to all accounts in the credit portfolio.

PIC Solutions` experienced ICT consultants will conduct the initial randomisation of the Standard Bank cards portfolio to ensure there is a solid statistical basis for the development of TRIAD Champion/Challenger strategies.

Douglas Walker, Director of Scored Unsecured Credit at Standard Bank, comments: "Getting randomisation wrong can be expensive, in terms of not being able to effectively measure Champion/Challenger tests. Although the principles of randomisation are very simple, there are a number of detailed technical and statistical subtleties that must be addressed to ensure each portfolio is truly randomised to allow for effective testing."

Mike Crawley, Director of Software Services at PIC Solutions, adds: "It is essential for credit, risk and marketing managers to randomise their accounts correctly. This ensures statistically random samples, which allows for a stable strategy-testing environment. PIC personnel have extensive experience of working with account management systems and our ICT and analytical teams have conducted a number of randomisation assignments for both domestic and international clients."