Russia’s leading lender to do loan checks using social networks likes
The biggest bank in Russia, Sberbank, will introduce another criterion to assess potential borrowers. Sberbank will check what their clients are interested in on social networks.
If a person likes accessories associated with prison or music praising criminal activity, the bank could delay a decision to give that person a loan, Aleksandr Vedyakhin, Head of the Risk Management Service of Sberbank told the Interfax news agency.
In Russia, there is a music genre called chanson. Unlike the traditional French version, the Russian chanson praises criminal lifestyle and time spent in prison.
According to the executive, Sberbank will use the studies of a Ph.D. in psychology Michal Kosinski, who works as an assistant professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research focuses on studying people through digital footprints they leave behind while using digital platforms and devices.
Sberbank is now working on a pilot program using data from volunteers. The program will be used in work starting next year. The bank claims it is in full compliance with the legislation on the protection of personal data.
In 2015, a joint study by Cambridge and Stanford universities showed that a computer can be a better judge of a person than his parents or friends.
The researchers found that their software was able to analyze a volunteer’s personality more accurately than a work colleague by analyzing just 10 likes. Seventy likes judged better than a friend, 150 likes out-performed parents or siblings, while 300 judged character better than a spouse.
