SinoPac and National Cheng Kung University Collaboration Using AI for Precision Marketing Produces Fruitful Results

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[2022.04.13, Taipei] Bank SinoPac, a subsidiary of SinoPac Holdings, and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) have entered the second phase of a three-year industry-academia collaboration. In the first year, we completed three major projects, including "Digital Account Precision Marketing" to enhance business efficiency, "Branch Location Appropriateness Decisions" to support operational decisions, and "Campus Future Financial Experiment" to build a digital financial ecosystem. The projects include using AI precision marketing models to dramatically reduce 1,500 operating hours per year and reduce the percentage of cash payments on the NCKU campus by nearly 10%, successfully realizing the vision of developing ubiquitous field finance and bridging the gap between academia and the industry.

In 2017, Bank SinoPac began an industry-academia partnership with National Cheng Kung University. In the program's first phase, Bank SinoPac invested in credit rating reports, precision marketing, product promotions, and blockchain research and provided scholarships and other talent development programs with remarkable results. The second phase of the three-year industry-academia collaboration with NCKU started in 2020. We created a new dimension of financial technology by combining domain knowledge and in-depth technology under the three core principles of "new technology, new architecture, and new business model."

In the "Digital Account Precision Marketing" project, SinoPac and NCKU applied an AI precision marketing model to tag and apply digital customer segments to speed up the marketing process by 40%. The model also predicts likely stagnant accounts to prevent customer loss and forecasts potential high-contributing customers to focus management resources. It is estimated that the Company can save approximately 1,500 hours of marketing time spent each year, and we are committed to providing accurate and differentiated financial services and business strategies for different customer segments.

In the "Branch Location Appropriateness Decisions" project, following the first phase results, Bank SinoPac has increased the learning intensity of the model on regional development to reduce incidences of misjudgment of sparsely populated or undeveloped road areas. Combined with AI technology, the model can enhance the branch's regional potential prediction capability with six future branch performance indicators from the branch's internal operation history, thereby providing a reference for branch operation adjustments. In addition, through establishing a regional information integration webpage platform, the forecast results and geospatial information are visually presented to provide decision-makers with a more comprehensive and convenient assessment of branch operation adjustments. We will include more information about the variables that may affect the area's development, such as the number of disgusting facilities and types of industries, to make more comprehensive decisions.

Apart from optimizing the management strategy, the "Campus Future Financial Experiment" project breaks away from the standard commercialization model and takes a campus financial ecology approach to education, enhancing students' financial literacy and helping cross-disciplinary students access financial knowledge. Through Taiwan's first campus virtual financial icon—the "NCKU School Mouse" has successfully guided nearly 400 NCKU audiences to open digital accounts and experience digital finance first-hand. During the project, Bank SinoPac formally introduced mobile payment services at NCKU and developed the "NCKU Online Payment Platform" together with the university through API technology to help with the digital transformation of campus payment operations and move towards the goal of a cashless smart campus. During this period, the proportion of campus cash payments reduced by nearly 10%. Also, SinoPac's digital payment services increased by 13%, gradually realizing the vision of developing ubiquitous field finance.

SinoPac Holdings stated that it had entered the fifth year of industry-academia cooperation with National Cheng Kung University. Through the rich theoretical framework of NCKU and SinoPac's various financial services, the program continues to improve the application of operational efficiency each year. By utilizing scientific data to establish decision-making aids, the collaboration helps to improve the efficiency of financial flow examination and cash management operations, reducing the frequency of procedures and labor burden. On the other hand, we continue to use data to build objective product recommendation models to effectively increase marketing turnover rates; provide exchange rate prediction analysis to help customers judge market trends, increase the depth and breadth of trading strategies, and deepen the financial product interactions to gradually realize a futuristic financial system.