Example-Dependent Cost-Sensitive Logistic Regression for Credit Scoring

Several real-world classification problems are example-dependent cost-sensitive in nature, where the costs due to misclassification vary between examples. Credit scoring is a typical example of cost-sensitive classification. However, it is usually treated using methods that do not take into account the real financial costs associated with the lending business. In this paper, we propose a new example-dependent cost matrix for credit scoring. Furthermore, we propose an algorithm that introduces the example-dependent costs into a logistic regression. Using two publicly available datasets, we compare our proposed method against state-of-the-art example-dependent cost-sensitive algorithms. The results highlight the importance of using real financial costs. Moreover, by using the proposed cost-sensitive logistic regression, significant improvements are made in the sense of higher savings.