Machine Learning and Metaheuristics Approach for Individual Credit Risk Assessment: A Systematic Literature Review.

Journal: Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland)
Published Date:

Abstract

Credit risk assessment plays a critical role in financial risk management, focusing on predicting borrower default to minimize losses and ensure compliance. This study systematically reviews 23 empirical articles published between 2019 and 2023, highlighting the integration of machine learning and optimization techniques, particularly bio-inspired metaheuristics, for feature selection in individual credit risk assessment. These nature-inspired algorithms, derived from biological and ecological processes, align with bio-inspired principles by mimicking natural intelligence to solve complex problems in high-dimensional feature spaces. Unlike prior reviews that adopt broader scopes combining corporate, sovereign, and individual contexts, this work focuses exclusively on methodological strategies for individual credit risk. It categorizes the use of machine learning algorithms, feature selection methods, and metaheuristic optimization techniques, including genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, and biogeography-based optimization. To strengthen transparency and comparability, this review also synthesizes classification performance metrics-such as accuracy, AUC, F1-score, and recall-reported across benchmark datasets. Although no unified experimental comparison was conducted due to heterogeneity in study protocols, this structured summary reveals consistent trends in algorithm effectiveness and evaluation practices. The review concludes with practical recommendations and outlines future research directions to improve fairness, scalability, and real-time application in credit risk modeling.

Authors

  • Álex Paz
    Escuela de Ingeniería en Construcción y Transporte, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Avenida Brasil 2147, Valparaíso 2362804, Chile.
  • Broderick Crawford
    Escuela de Ingeniería Informática, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Avenida Brasil 2241, Valparaíso 2362807, Chile.
  • Eric Monfroy
    Laboratoire d'Étude et de Recherche en Informatique d'Angers (LERIA), Université d' Angers, 49000 Angers, France.
  • José Barrera-García
    Escuela de Ingeniería Informática, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Avenida Brasil 2241, Valparaíso 2362807, Chile.
  • Álvaro Peña Fritz
    Escuela de Ingeniería en Construcción y Transporte, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Avenida Brasil 2147, Valparaíso 2362804, Chile.
  • Ricardo Soto
    Escuela de Ingeniería Informática, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Avenida Brasil 2241, Valparaíso 2362807, Chile.
  • Felipe Cisternas-Caneo
    Escuela de Ingeniería Informática, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Avenida Brasil 2241, Valparaíso 2362807, Chile.
  • Andrés Yáñez
    Escuela de Ingeniería en Construcción y Transporte, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Avenida Brasil 2147, Valparaíso 2362804, Chile.

Keywords

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