(Left to right): Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd chief financial officer Lee Siew Tee, Aeon Credit chairman Ng Eng Kiat, and Aeon Credit managing director Daisuke Maeda at the press conference after its 26th annual general meeting (AGM) on Wednesday, June 21, 2023. (Photo by Shahrin Yahya/The Edge)

KUALA LUMPUR (June 21): Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology to trim its high-risk customers segment to approximately 20%, from 30% currently.

Its high-risk customers include those with lower credit scores, which are mainly from the younger and lower income group.

Speaking at a press conference after its 26th annual general meeting (AGM) on Wednesday (June 21), Aeon Credit managing director Daisuke Maeda said the group has decided on the AI initiative to improve its asset quality.

“We launched the digital onboarding for instant conditional approval, which is backed by e-KYC (electronic know your customer) solutions and scoring models to acquire good score customers, strategically,” Maeda said.

He said Aeon Credit has collaborated with Japan-based Global Al Innovations Laboratory Co Ltd (Gailabo), which offers Al-based credit scoring service for Aeon Credit to optimise and enhance the application process to eligible applicants.

“This is to improve our approval ratio, as well as adopt a risk-based collection approach, which is focusing on high-risk customers to improve our productivity and collection performance,” he said.

The consumer finance company said it has allocated up to RM3 million of its operating expenditure (opex) this year for the Al-based credit scoring service.

Aeon Credit chief financial officer Lee Siew Tee said the decision to use the AI service was because the company wants to improve its productivity in the long run, especially amid the higher inflation environment.

“We will look into our credit policies and revise accordingly. Other than reducing our high-risk customers, we also want to improve our high-credit-score (customer segment) — to balance up our portfolio,” she said.

She added that the group plans to focus on acquiring more customers with good credit scores in the long run.

At 3.29pm on Wednesday, shares in Aeon Credit rose 0.89% or 10 sen to RM11.36, valuing the company at RM2.89 billion.

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