LAKE MARY, Fla. — CFE Federal Credit Union held its first-ever Data Analytics Symposium here in conjunction with the University of Central Florida.
From developing predictive models to interpreting data, UCF graduate students were given the opportunity to participate in the inaugural Lending Analytics Competition. From October 2017 to January 2018, teams used data sets to predict lending risks facing the credit union community, according to CFE FCU.
The competition culminated in the UCF Data Analytics Symposium, where CFE awarded a total of $5,000 in scholarships to the winning teams.
“As the field of data analytics grows exponentially, it has become more important than ever for companies to use big data to make strategic decisions,” said Kevin Miller, CFE’s president and CEO. “At CFE, we believe in the value of data analytics in the banking industry and beyond and are proud to invest in UCF’s graduate-level programs.”
CFE FCU’s Business Intelligence department partnered with the UCF Department of Statistics in developing a competition designed to reduce consumer lending risks. Teams received data sets with disguised information about CFE’s loan portfolio, along with data dictionaries to help students better understand the industry-specific data, the credit union said. With this information, teams created predictive models to determine which data points are most closely associated with loan charge-offs, and communicated their findings in a project report to present to senior management.
According to CFE FCU, the teams’ models were tested against a wider data set, and three winning teams were selected based on how closely their models predicted factors related to loan charge-offs.
“By working with talented students at UCF, we can resolve real-world problems that are facing our organization and our industry as a whole. Through data analytics, students have the power to effect real change in the organizations they serve, as they collaborate with businesses both locally and worldwide,” said Kevin Wright, chief information officer at CFE.
In the future, CFE said it plans to host additional data analytics competitions that address issues facing the banking industry.