Construction and testing of a knowledge‐based system in retail bank marketing

As the financial services marketplace becomes increasingly competitive, many banks and building societies are experimenting with the use of knowledge based systems (also known as expert systems). BANKSTRAT is a prototype system designed to advise on marketing strategy for retail banks/building societies. It was developed using the expert system shell LEONARDO, and demonstrated to potential users (marketing managers/ directors) in 16 banks and building societies in order to validate its rule base of advice, generate further rules, and gain feedback on how it could be extended to become a useful working model. In the majority of cases respondents agreed with advice given. Criticisms mainly centred on the model′s lack of sophistication, and many useful suggestions were made for improvement. Seventy‐five per cent of respondents believed that a fully developed version of BANKSTRAT could be of use to their company. Further developments would need to be tailored specifically to the user organization.