The Value of Credit Risk Transformations and the Role of AI

Data, analytics, and credit risk decisioning have always been important in financial services. Their role has become even more essential amidst the economic uncertainty of the post-pandemic environment.

Many financial institutions are undergoing major credit risk transformations to uplift their credit risk modeling and decisioning capabilities. But navigating this change is not easy.

Join us for a deep dive into how banks from around the world are overhauling their credit risk management capabilities. We will share the scope and challenges of the shift, including:

•What banks are really trying to achieve

•What capabilities they are prioritizing

•How they choose key success criteria

•What the future looks like

Speakers

Alper Eker

Head of Retail Credit Risk, Garanti Bank

Alper Eker has more than 25 years of experience in process automation and corporate risk management with international corporations like General Electric and universal banks including BBVA and Garanti BBVA bank. He began his career at GE’s Corporate R&D Center in the U.S. as a technology expert, leading various technology development projects in GE Power systems, Healthcare, and GE Capital.

Next Alper shifted his career to finance with GE Capital in the U.S. and obtained a black belt degree in the Lean & Six Sigma Change management program. After moving to GE Consumer Finance, he founded GE Central Eastern Europe Region Risk Analytics Center of Excellence in Prague, Czech Republic. Alper moved to Turkey and led the GE and then BBVA Representative Office Risk departments in Garanti Bank Turkey, focusing on integration framework for corporate risk policy procedures and commercial credit committee processes until the end of 2015.

Since 2016, Alper has led the Retail Credit risk area for Consumer and SME loans at Garanti Bank, where he is responsible for wing-to-wing management of underwriting to monitor areas for unsecured products (i.e. personal loans, overdrafts, and credit cards), as well as secured products such as mortgages, auto loans, and margin loans. In this role, Alper has focused on optimized workflows and digitalization of credit circuits, increasing data-based decision-making capabilities, and finalizing SME retail micro credit circuits. As a part of his role, he has represented Garanti BBVA in the Turkish Credit Bureau (KKB) Board of Representatives since 2016 and currently is the KKB Chairman. Alper earned a Ph.D. in System Controls and Process Optimization from the University of Houston Chemical Engineering Department. He has been awarded patents and published papers in international publications.

Zeynep Salman

Risk Management Advisor, SAS

Zeynep Salman is a credit risk professional who has managed originations, customer management, and collections teams for consumer and small business portfolios. She joined SAS in 2022 and is currently leading risk decisioning advisory activities across the EMEA region. Zeynep is passionate about driving automation, seamless customer experiences, convergence of credit and fraud evaluations across the customer lifecycle, AI-driven customer engagements, and working with clients to support near- and long-term strategic roadmaps to drive value. Before joining SAS, Zeynep held many key roles at financial institutions including Citibank, HSBC, Toyota Finance, and UniCredit, as well as software vendors such as FICO.

Gregorio Carrascal Garcia

Quantitative Credit & Liquidity Strategy, Active Credit Portfolio Managment (ACPM), Santander

Gregorio Carrascal is a credit strategist in Quantitative Credit & Liquidity Strategy for the Active Credit Portfolio Management (ACPM) unit at Santander. His role involves analyzing large corporations to anticipate to credit losses, interpreting machine learning models and market alert systems, while also participating in initiatives of capital optimization. Gregorio proposes operations to senior management aimed at short credit, hedging, or insuring credit operations.

Gregorio began his career at Santander in 2009 in credit risk in the Internal Audit Department before shifting to Basel Credit Risk models within Internal Audit. He has lectured at the Universidad de Alcalá on project finance, corporate finance, and portfolio management.

In 2015 Gregorio contributed to the GARP Drive, and in January 2016 he met other FRMs in one of GARP’s workshops in London. To date he has participated in four workshops and enjoyed engaging in challenging conversations and relations with other FRM professionals and staff. Gregorio received his masters in Auditing and a masters in Corporate Social Responsibility. He has been a certified CFA since 2014, received his FRM Certification in 2015, and has been the co-Director of the Madrid Chapter at GARP since 2019.

Moderator - Lisa Ponti

VP, Educational Outreach, GARP

Lisa Ponti, Vice President, Educational Outreach, meets with students to discuss the FRM and ERP certification programs, and works with universities to establish partnerships in risk education. She also works to raise the profile of both programs among regulatory agencies and corporate employers in the financial and energy markets.

Joining GARP in 2014 as a member of the FRM Exam Development team, she focused on financial markets and products, and on current issues in financial markets. She previously worked in commercial banking, first as an analyst, then as a lending officer, before transitioning to academia to teach statistics, economics, and finance at local universities including NYU and Fordham.

Ponti holds a bachelor’s degree in finance with a minor in economics from Penn State University; she earned a master’s in business administration with a concentration in finance, and a doctorate in business education, both from New York University.