Competitive Product Development in the Financial Services Industry—A Knowledge‐Based Approach

Abstract

The development of innovative products and the ability to quickly adapt to changes is important for financial institutions in today's highly competitive environment. The information system department has to create the required information technology support (IT support) for these tasks. A model that allows the characterization of bank products by means of parameter sets and integrity constraints that in most cases may be viewed as business rules will be presented. Based on this parameter model a prototype system was developed to verify the approach used. This system also provides support for the areas of risk and yield management and may be used as a basis for systems providing counselling services. The prototype was implemented by coupling PROLOG and a relational database system. Arguments will be presented against the use of object‐oriented database systems and in favour of the currently less popular deductive database approach. The approach presented may be extended such that products related to the life insurance business may also be covered.