Bank of Russia uses machine learning to identify unlicensed money lenders

The Bank of Russia is using machine learning technology to identify unlicensed money lenders, and the websites hosting them. The technology, developed by Yandex Data Factory, has helped to reveal 2,500 suspicious organisations. The system uses algorithms to search out websites hosting illegal cash loan providers and unregulated financial activity by indexing web pages related to microfinance and consumer loans. Yandex uses keyword analysis across a search index of some seven million web pages related to finance topics. In order to help build the specialised search model, Bank of Russia experts sorted through and categorised 8,000 web pages.