
TOKYO -- Japanese internet bank SBI Sumishin Net Bank will work with Hitachi to offer an instant loan-screening service powered by artificial intelligence to regional banks, a sector facing intensifying competition amid the country's shrinking population.
The AI will take only seconds to compute risks and express them as a value between zero and 100%, using such data as annual income, occupation, family composition and credit history. Bank staffers conventionally place applicants into several different risk levels based on credit history, a process that takes days.