Foundational30 minClassificationFeature ImportanceClass Imbalance
Credit Card Application Approval
Meridian Trust is a mid-sized US consumer bank that issues a popular cashback credit card through its online channel. Its risk team is piloting an auto-approval engine to speed up underwriting while keeping defaults in check.
Over the past year, the risk team has been reviewing which approved applicants ended up defaulting in their first 12 months.
The business question
Which credit card applications should we auto-approve, and which should we route to manual review? Specifically: is 'thin-file' a useful signal for routing, and what actually drives default risk here?