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Loan Market Group has appointed a former Westpac senior analyst to be its first data scientist in anticipation of “mass digital change across the industry”.
The aggregation and brokerage group has hired Clement Yeung, a former risk manager and senior analyst for Westpac, as its first data scientist.
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Mr Yeung was previously responsible for managing risk in Westpac’s retail credit portfolio optimisation (mortgages) division and has also previously worked as a credit card fraud analyst at the major bank.
In 2018, Mr Yeung won a Bizhack competition held by IBM, Westpac and Telstra that aimed to provide innovative solutions to the problems raised by the banking royal commission. His team won the competition for its concept of an AI-enabled financial mentor for Millennials.
Loan Market said the new hire came as the group was expanding its skills base in order to prepare for incoming initiatives, such as open banking, as well as the group’s increasing focus on technology.
Executive chairman Sam White commented: “We’re transitioning to a network of paperless offices and with that brings the opportunity to deep-dive into broker and consumer behaviour to generate improved products and services.
“Clement is a great talent and his experience in banking offers insights into how ‘the other side of the fence’ manages data. His fresh perspective in broking will encourage us to look at data differently, too.”
Speaking of his new role, Mr Yeung said: “At the moment, I don’t think anyone in the wider financial services sector is nailing the data space; most have been collecting it, but few are acting on it.”
However, he added that he thought Loan Market’s plans to “do something special for its brokers and their customers in terms of data management and use” and harness the new opportunities created by open banking for the broker-customer relationship were “quite exciting”.
“Effective use of data opens up countless possibilities and is a key catalyst for innovation,” Mr Yeung continued.
“Ultimately, it will allow the creation of products that help bring brokers and their clients together; enhance returns on marketing efforts through deeper customer segmentation; provide insights into customers’ needs; and improve synergy between complementary specialists – such as real estate agents and wealth managers.”
[Related: In Focus: Becoming the paperless broker with Loan Market]
