=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2114/paper6
|storemode=property
|title=Towards a Data Mining Methodology for the Banking Domain
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2114/paper6.pdf
|volume=Vol-2114
|authors=Veronika Plotnikova
}}
==Towards a Data Mining Methodology for the Banking Domain==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2114/paper6.pdf
Towards a Data Mining Methodology for the Banking
Domain
Veronika Plotnikova
Supervisors: Marlon Dumas, Fredrik P. Milani, Robert Kitt
University of Tartu, Institute of Computer Science, J. Liivi 2, 50409 Tartu, Estonia
veronika.plotnikova@ut.ee
Abstract. Telecoms and financial service industries are leaders in adopting data
analytics technologies, practices, and heavily invest into „Big Data‟ tools and
related competence development. However, many of them fail to realize bene-
fits of data-driven decision making and maximize „Big Data‟ business value due
to lack of knowledge on how to frame, approach and tackle complex data ana-
lytics projects. Existing data mining methodologies are domain-independent,
general, abstract and partially outdated. Several refinements of data mining
methodologies have been proposed, but they address specific aspects or tasks
and remain fragmented. The goal of this doctoral project is to develop a do-
main-specific data mining methodology for the financial sector, which (1) rep-
resents consolidation of existing body of knowledge, and (2) is validated on the
sample of real life data-mining projects. The proposed illustrative case studies
approach is based on broad, typical data mining use cases portfolio executed
across different geographical regions and business areas of the financial institu-
tion.
Keywords: Big data, Data mining, CRISP-DM, Banking, Financial services.
1 Introduction
The „Big Data‟ phenomenon, technological advances in data processing and devel-
opment of algorithmic techniques have fostered widespread adoption of data analytics
across different industries. According to the most recent market studies [1-2] adoption
rate of „Big Data‟ analytics tripled for all companies reaching 53% in 2017, up from
17% in 2015. Study based on global in-depth survey of 583 business and IT profes-
sionals [3] revealed that 40% of organizations are already using data analytics across
key business functions, and it forecasted to double: the rate should exceed 70% in
2018 and reach 90% in 2020. Telecommunications and financial services are the lead-
ing industry adopters with 87% and 76% of the respective sector companies already
reporting the data analytics usage [1-2] – well above average figures.
Telecoms and financial sectors as early adopters have developed specific datasets,
varieties of data and execute broad set of data mining tasks to solve industry-specific
business problems. Therefore, both industries are naturally the most suitable sectors
for in-depth exploration of data analytics1 phenomena and its impact on organizations
and business practices. Also, both telecoms and financial services explicitly demon-
strate the trend of heavy investments into data analytics technologies and competenc-
es seeking to realize benefits from data-driven decision-making and maximize „Big
Data‟ business value. However, many of them consequently fail due to lack of
knowledge on how to approach and tackle complex data analytics projects. Well-
developed, comprehensive, domain-specific methodologies and guidelines to govern
data analytics deliveries is key pre-requisite to ensure their success. Business value is
realized by reusability, repeatability, scaling and actionability of resulting data analyt-
ics products, solutions and insights across organization and is dependent on domain-
specific factors.
Academic literature to date have studied [4, 10] data mining use cases catering to
broad variety of business problems along with application-specific issues [5]. In con-
trast, existing standard data-mining methodologies have not been extensively and
explicitly discussed; they are domain-independent, rather generic, abstract and partial-
ly outdated. There are attempts to introduce refinements, but they are also fragmented
and concentrated at two opposite ends of the spectrum - either proposing additional
elements into a data mining process, or focusing on organizational aspects (general
data mining processes and tools integration into business, enterprise and IT architec-
tures); domain-specific factors are not considered.
Comprehensive, domain-specific methodologies for data analytics projects are crit-
ical for business value realization, but they do not exist. The purpose of this PhD pro-
ject is to bridge the gap and develop such data mining methodology. As telecoms and
financial services are identified as one of the most suitable sectors for in-depth explo-
ration of data analytics business practices, the new methodology will be designed for
one of them - banking domain2. The project‟s research proposal is structured as fol-
lows. Section 2 introduces necessary basic concepts and terminology, and reflects on
their current usage by practitioners. Section 3 offers literature review followed by
identification of existing research gaps and formulation of research questions, Section
4 proposes research methodology while Section 5 concludes.
2 Basic Concepts and Related Terminology
Data Mining is defined as set of rules, processes, algorithms that are designed to find
valuable „knowledge‟, extract patterns, identify relationships, etc. from large date
warehouses or datasets [10]. This involves automated data extraction, processing,
modeling with the help of vast range of methods and techniques of statistics, machine
learning, artificial intelligence, etc. There are three major standard methodologies
1
In this paper, data analysis and data mining are used as synonyms, even though it is acknowl-
edged that data analytics is broader field, as it encompasses statistical analysis methods that
are traditionally not associated with data mining.
2
In this paper, banking domain refers to universal banking business model with extensive
products and services portfolio offered to all types of clientele, and with variety of support
functions (risk, operations, etc.).
47
developed and widely used in academic research and in business practices, CRISP-
DM, SEMMA, ASUM-DM. Short overview of each and current usage practices are
presented in the following subsections.
2.1 Overview of Existing Standard Data Mining Methodologies
CRISP-DM (Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining) is industry–driven
guidelines to perform data mining on large datasets [9-11]. It originated from KDD
(Knowledge Discovery in Databases) field which also had KDD process developed in
1996 [8]. Essentially, CRISP-DM was built on KDD process fundamentals3, however,
with several abstraction layers it has achieved much higher level of complexity and
details (eg. generic tasks level consists of 24 tasks and outputs), thereby, representing
refinement of KDD process. CRIPS-DM development was led by industrial consorti-
um with the final version published in 2000; attempts to update initiated in 2006 were
unsuccessful. CRISP-DM divides data mining process into six not strictly sequential,
but iterative phases – business understanding, data understanding and data prepara-
tion, modeling, evaluation, and deployment.
SEMMA (Sample, Explore, Modify, Model and Assess) is list of sequential steps
guiding implementation of data mining process developed by SAS Institute [10-11].
ASUM-DM (Analytics Solutions Unified Method for Data Mining) was released in
2015 by IBM with the purposes to refine and extend CRISP-DM.
2.2 Data Mining Methodologies Usage Patterns
According to KDNuggets4 polls results presented in the Table 1, the leading method-
ology for data mining process is CRISP-DM, followed by SEMMA and KDD [6].
Table 1. KDNuggets Poll on Data Mining Methodology results, [6]
Poll Years 2002 2004 2007 2014
CRISP-DM 51% 42% 42% 43%
SEMMA 12% 10% 13% 8.5%
KDD process 7% 7.5%
My organization‟s 7% 6% 5% 3.5%
My own 23% 28% 19% 27.5%
Other (incl. domain specific) 4% 6% 9% (5%) 10% (2%)
None 4% 7% 5% 0%
However, the usage of CRIPS-DM has reached plateau while others are steadily de-
clining. Importantly, data scientists own methodologies usage stays above 25% rate
3
KDD process consists of 9 steps: learning application domain, dataset creation, data clean-
ing & processing, data reduction & projection, choosing the function of data mining, choos-
ing data mining algorithm, interpretation, using discovered knowledge.
4
One of the leading websites on Business Analytics, Data Mining, and Data Science (edited
by Gregory I. Piatetsky-Shapiro, one of the major contributors to Knowledge Discovery and
Data Mining concepts).
48
and coupled with other ones (domain and non-domain specific) is steadily increasing
reaching usage rate of over 30% [6]. This indicates decline in adoption rates of
CRISP-DM and potential need for revision and modification. Indeed, this methodolo-
gy though widely used was not updated since 2000 while data mining usage, methods
and tools have developed exponentially.
3 Literature Review
The literature review was conducted using key principles of Systematic Literature
Review approach [7]. The corpus of scientific research articles, publications and
books was retrieved and the following steps conducted.
Step 1 - Scopus and Web of Science databases have been searched with the search
string of the three standard major methodologies described in Section 2, i.e. “CRISP-
DM”, “SEMMA”, “ASUM-DM” jointly with domain keyword “banking”5. All texts
referred from databases were retrieved and included into literature corpus.
Step 2 - Identical procedure as in Step 1 was performed for Google Scholar data-
base, but with the delimitation - the texts corpus was retrieved for the first 100 hits.
The threshold was determined empirically based on evaluation of relevancy of texts
spanning beyond first 100 search results. The relevancy of the retrieved texts after the
given threshold declined significantly and did not contribute to additional insights.
In both steps, there were no time restrictions set, all texts were retrieved as many
years back as database contained, oldest publication dated back to 1998, newest to
2018. 1/3 of studies have been published over last 3 years while approximately half of
the scientific texts are concentrated over last 5 years period. Overall text corpus was
reviewed and evaluated on iterative basis with respect to the relevancy of studies.
Summary statistics of the literature reviewed is presented in the Table 2 below.
Table 2. Summary statistics on retrieved publications
Database Scopus and Google Total Class 1 Class 2
Web of Science Scholar texts texts
No. of texts (string 57 91 148
Crisp-DM)
No. of texts (string 9 94 103
SEMMA)
No. of texts (string 1 3 4
ASUM-DM)
Total (excl. duplica- 61 163 224
tions)
Total (excl. irrelevant) 55 132 187 83 104
Scientific publications from databases were supplemented by additional set of general
materials (over 20 various texts). They were primarily retrieved from industry web-
5
As CRISP-DM methodology is elaborated derivation, refinement of KDD process (as de-
scribed in Section 2.1), KDD was omitted from the direct search.
49
sites via general search and provide descriptive information on data mining method-
ologies and processes in industry context.
Analysis of the selected publications corpus enables to perform next research steps:
1. construct high-level typification of research performed in the field over the
last 10 years,
2. identify and categorize the existing research gaps, and
3. formulate research questions.
Based on analysis of scientific publications, existing research can be broadly typi-
fied into two major classes.
The first research class (hereinafter, Class 1) relates to application of various data
mining methodologies for specific case studies. Importantly, the typical purpose of
case studies is to solve various business problems of the financial institutions by the
means of modeling tasks. The case studies can be further categorized as follows:
1. customer behavior modeling with the purpose to identify customer likely to
churn or loyal customer [13],
2. profiling customers either according to the usage patterns of various digital
channels while interacting with the bank, patterns of electronic transactions,
eg., [13-14] or based on other features,
3. overall customer relationship management including customer segmentation
tasks, customer targeting [15],
4. modeling tasks to support variety of risk management processes:
a. credit risk identification and management – credit scoring, model-
ing and identifications of defaults [16],
b. identification and prevention of fraud behavior and/or ALM risks,
c. risk control activities including auditing (internal/external in bank
domain) [17],
5. efficiency studies, eg. optimization of branch network [18].
In Class 1 publications, the relevant data mining methodologies are used to struc-
ture the data mining process and achieve data mining goals. Critical discussions are
not common, and if present, are structured around the method application at best,
typically considering data.
Also, Class 1 research concentrates on the application of the particular scientific
technique processing aspects, types of modeling techniques with associated selection
of the best one based on evaluation results, model validation aspects, feature selection
and the final set of the best predictors. At the same time, there is lack of critical eval-
uation of methodology aspects, discussions on the methodology steps, substeps that
need to be modified, added, or are redundant is largely omitted. Knowledge discovery
in relation to executing the data mining task methodologically remains „hidden‟, „tac-
it‟ and confined within individual experience of the data mining experts. This might
be evidenced by own methodologies usage growth as identified in subsection 2.2.
The second class of publications (hereinafter, Class 2) concentrates on data mining
methodologies or processes on a higher abstraction levels. A subset of these studies
also contains case studies similarly to Class 1 publications, but in contrast, these ex-
periments are conducted on a broader scope with larger number of organizations
and/or data mining tasks. Also, Class 2 publications typically present critical evalua-
50
tion of existing standard data mining methodologies. Such approach supports identifi-
cation of deficiencies and suggests improvements. Importantly, Class 2 research takes
various domain and industry perspectives. However, most of the studies focus on the
analysis of specific step of the methodologies. Very rare exception is [12] which pro-
poses novel direction - design of fuzzy expert system to evaluate overall success of
data mining projects by evaluating each step of the process methodology.
Critical evaluation results and proposed suggestions can be structured based on the
following methodology phases, steps or areas.
Deployment phase and business process. CRISP-DM methodology is identified as
lacking deployment phase details which can support integration of data mining results
into business process [19]. Pivk, et al identify relationship between data and data min-
ing sophistication levels, and propose improvements by use of ontologies (domain,
business process and data mining) including extension elements to CRISP-DM, and
Service-Oriented Architecture for data mining. [20] proposes new deployment
framework (DEEPER). Associated concepts of ontologies and broader business archi-
tecture for establishing data mining systems in organization are also discussed [21].
Data preparation phase and data requirements. Number of studies proposes addi-
tional substeps and techniques for data preparations stage starting from adjustments to
KDD initiated in [22] or alternatively, specific methodologies on gathering and struc-
turing data requirements in the broader context of data-intensive projects and data
governance [23]. These studies are performed in the context of IT system architecture,
discussing enterprise data warehouses, „data lakes‟ and associated data and infor-
mation modeling and management concepts (eg. Business Information Modeling).
Given the fact that ~80% time in data mining process is taken by data preprocessing
and preparation steps, this part of research is of utmost importance.
Model evaluation and selection phase. This research direction focuses on relevant
methodology enhancements to model evaluation and selection steps based on deci-
sion-support framework, eg. [24] proposes hybrid methodology and procedure for
generating and selecting the most appropriate casual explanatory model.
Novel methodology enhancements and adjustments. Limited, but valuable num-
ber of studies has emerged as a response to legislation and regulatory requirements,
eg. [25] developed DADM (Discrimination-aware data mining) framework. Other
valuable direction of research is represented by authors proposing extension of meth-
odological frameworks from other business areas or processes. Adaptive Software
Development (ASD) methodology is adopted and introduced as ASD-DM for predic-
tive data mining in [26]. Other research is associated with Sex Sigma Lean methodol-
ogies modifications and application in data mining process context, eg. DMAIC 6 ap-
plication discussed in [27].
BI technologies, tools and IT architectures perspectives. Part of the studies
acknowledge importance of data mining processes and associated methodologies
when designing and implementing respective BI, Data Science technologies and tools
6
Acronym for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control, refers to a data-driven im-
provement cycle used for improving, optimizing and stabilizing business processes and de-
signs.
51
in the organizations. Such studies lack enhancement prospective, however, they dis-
cuss relevant aspects for successful integration of data mining process into overall IT
architecture [28].
Organizational prospective. Finally, there is set of Class 2 publications progress-
ing to higher levels of generalization [29]. These studies do not focus on application
of data mining methodologies, but rather concentrate on broader investigation on
adoption of data mining as such. These studies, though not addressing concrete meth-
odological aspects are rather important as they discuss relevant motivational and or-
ganizational aspects. These aspects are disregarded in existing standard data mining
methodologies, however, they do represent an inseparable part of practical context
and implementation environment in which data mining methodology is used.
The literature review showed a few well-developed frameworks for data mining,
and they have been created for wide industry application. Existing data mining meth-
odologies do not cater to specific industry needs such as banking domain. Thus, exist-
ing research gap can be formulated as follows:
Research Gap – Lack of comprehensive data-mining methodology applicable,
adapted for banking industry.
The following research questions address it:
RQ1: What are the existing data mining frameworks and what components they in-
clude?
RQ2: What within the existing frameworks could be re-used, removed or needed to be
added in order to develop the data mining methodology for banking domain?
The research methodology to address research questions is presented in Section 4.
4 Research Methodology
The research methodology consists of two phases summarized in the Table 3.
Table 3. Research methodology overview for Phase 1 and 2
Phase RQs Activities Expected Outcome
1 - Comprehensive RQ1 Systematic Literature Review and Comprehensive over-
review of existing analysis of its results view of existing DM
frameworks frameworks
2.1 - Refinements RQ2 Identification, consolidation of Structured list of re-
generation refinements towards existing DM finements to DM meth-
methodologies from existing litera- odologies phases, steps
ture and deliverables
2.2 - Validation RQ2 Validating refinements proposed in Common, validated
phase 2.1 with sample of real-life refinements set
data mining projects. Removal of
conflicting, irrelevant refinements
Expected outcome of the research is conceptualized, refined data mining methodology
with adaptations to financial services domain, which (1) represents consolidation of
existing body of knowledge, and (2) is validated on the sample of real life data-
52
mining projects. The proposed illustrative case studies approach is based on broad,
typical data mining use cases portfolio executed across different geographical regions
and business areas of the financial institution.
5 Conclusion
The Systematic Literature Review for the research project (documented in Section 3)
has demonstrated a few well-developed frameworks for data mining created for wide
industry application, which do not cater to specific industry needs such as banking
domain. Also, scarce research concerned with this topic in specific financial services
domain provides opportunities for new insights and novel findings relevant for both
practitioners and academia. Section 4 proposed project research methodology to: (1)
elicit and consolidate domain-specific refinements towards existing data mining
methodologies from existing body of knowledge, and (2) to validate against portfolio
of real-life data mining projects executed in banking domain. The result of the study
will be conceptualized, enhanced data-mining methodology specifically designed to
frame and tackle complex data analytics projects in financial services industry.
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