Google AI Scheme Targets Banks Overwhelmed By Pandemic

Google has introduced an artificial intelligence-powered system aimed at helping lending institutions process coronavirus-related loans to small businesses.

The PPP Lending AI Solution, introduced at the end of last week, is specifically aimed at lenders participating in a US government scheme that offers loans to help small businesses stay in business through the Covid-19 pandemic.

The US Small Business Association’s Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP) offers loans that smaller organisations can use to keep staff on their payroll during the crisis.

But lenders participating in the programme have been overwhelmed by the number of applications coming in.

Analytics

Google said its scheme is an end-to-end system that can speed up the time it takes to make a decision on loans, while helping inform lenders’ liquidity analysis.

The programme’s tools extend “from the initial application submission to the underwriting process and SBA validation”, Google said.

The product is composed of three components that can be used together or individually, covering loan processing, document parsing and data analytics.

The Loan Processing Portal is a web-based application that allows lending agents or loan applicants create, submit and view the status of a PPP loan application, while the Document AI PPP Parser API allows lenders to use AI to extract structured information from PPP loan documents.

The third tool, Loan Analytics, allows lenders to access and analyse historical loan data, assist in the anonymisation of sensitive information and securely store data.

Cloud boom

Google added that the Document AI PPP Parser is available free of charge through 30 June.

Google’s cloud services arm has stepped up its enterprise focus over the past year, focusing on several key vertical industries, including financial services.

The company highlighted cloud features that allow financial organisations to quickly increase capacity when required and to shift workloads from mainframes to the cloud for added flexibility – features that have proven desireable during the pandemic.

“We are committed to maintaining the health of the systems that power the financial services industry, and will do everything we can to empower our customers’ business continuity planning and resilience,” Google said in a blog post.