Algorithmic decision making methods for fair credit scoring

The rise of algorithmic decision-making has spawned much research on fair machine learning (ML). Financial institutions use ML for building risk scorecards that support a range of credit-related decisions. Yet, the literature on fair ML in credit scoring is scarce. The paper makes three contributions. First, we revisit statistical fairness criteria and examine their adequacy for credit scoring. Second, we catalog algorithmic options for incorporating fairness goals in the ML ...

Digitalization of credit scoring is an essential requirement for financial organizations and commercial banks, especially in the context of digital transformation. Machine learning techniques are commonly used to evaluate customers' creditworthiness. However, the predicted outcomes of machine learning models can be biased toward protected attributes, such as race or gender. Numerous fairness-aware machine learning models and fairness measures have been proposed. Nevertheless,...

Machine learning algorithms are now frequently used in sensitive contexts that substantially affect the course of human lives, such as credit lending or criminal justice. This is driven by the idea that `objective' machines base their decisions solely on facts and remain unaffected by human cognitive biases, discriminatory tendencies or emotions. Yet, there is overwhelming evidence showing that algorithms can inherit or even perpetuate human biases in their decision making wh...

In the past few years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has garnered attention from various industries including financial services (FS). AI has made a positive impact in financial services by enhancing productivity and improving risk management. While AI can offer efficient solutions, it has the potential to bring unintended consequences. One such consequence is the pronounced effect of AI-related unfairness and attendant fairness-related harms. These fairness-related harms coul...

An increasing number of decisions regarding the daily lives of human beings are being controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in spheres ranging from healthcare, transportation, and education to college admissions, recruitment, provision of loans and many more realms. Since they now touch on many aspects of our lives, it is crucial to develop AI algorithms that are not only accurate but also objective and fair. Recent studies have shown that algorithmic decision...

Credit is an essential component of financial wellbeing in America, and unequal access to it is a large factor in the economic disparities between demographic groups that exist today. Today, machine learning algorithms, sometimes trained on alternative data, are increasingly being used to determine access to credit, yet research has shown that machine learning can encode many different versions of "unfairness," thus raising the concern that banks and other financial instituti...

There is substantial evidence that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms can generate bias against minorities, women, and other protected classes. Federal and state laws have been enacted to protect consumers from discrimination in credit, housing, and employment, where regulators and agencies are tasked with enforcing these laws. Additionally, there are laws in place to ensure that consumers understand why they are denied access to services and pr...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an important driving force for the development and transformation of the financial industry. However, with the fast-evolving AI technology and application, unintentional bias, insufficient model validation, immature contingency plan and other underestimated threats may expose the company to operational and reputational risks. In this paper, we focus on fairness evaluation, one of the key components of AI Governance, through a quantitative lens....

In credit markets, screening algorithms aim to discriminate between good-type and bad-type borrowers. However, when doing so, they also often discriminate between individuals sharing a protected attribute (e.g. gender, age, racial origin) and the rest of the population. In this paper, we show how (1) to test whether there exists a statistically significant difference between protected and unprotected groups, which we call lack of fairness and (2) to identify the variables tha...

The widespread use of machine learning in credit scoring has brought significant advancements in risk assessment and decision-making. However, it has also raised concerns about potential biases, discrimination, and lack of transparency in these automated systems. This tutorial paper performed a non-systematic literature review to guide best practices for developing responsible machine learning models in credit scoring, focusing on fairness, reject inference, and explainabilit...