Finance firm launches anti-fraud system

Mashang Consumer Finance Co Ltd has launched a self-developed new artificial intelligence system, aiming to leverage technology to further enhance the industry’s anti-fraud capabilities and offer more intelligent financial services to its customers.

The lip-reading identification system, which integrates a variety of AI technologies such as facial recognition, machine vision, speech recognition and natural language processing, can achieve a pass rate above 96 percent for online user identification, the company said on Wednesday.

Recognition work will be done within three seconds, which will effectively reduce online fraud risks in the consumer credit sector and improve customer experience, the Chongqing-based firm said.

The consumer finance industry, featuring small and scattered amounts of loan applications by people who lack credit records but need quick and convenient financial services, has been confronted with many risk management challenges different from that of traditional financial institutions.

Mashang Consumer Finance said it has been endeavoring to explore intelligent and innovative technical applications through independent research and development.

Now it has built an intelligent risk control system that runs through its whole business process, including pre-loan, in-loan and post-loan management and a real-time intelligent online identity verification platform for all its business scenarios.

This year, the company has focused on tech-powered business expansion by leveraging five major technologies — cloud platform, artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain and biometric identification — and it now has more than 30 patents related to AI technology.

“The consumer finance industry has entered an era of competing technological capabilities. And companies which have independent core technologies will enjoy competitive advantages,” said Zhao Guoqing, the company's founder and CEO.

Last month, the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, released a three-year financial technology development plan, aiming to improve the industry’s top-down design and bolster risk controls.

The 2019-2021 plan noted the next three years would be a critical period for the development of financial science and technology.

The State Council rolled out targeted measures in late August to encourage financial institutions to innovate consumer credit products and services to boost domestic consumption.