Since the development of a smart weather data model a year and a half ago, the bank has contacted more than 3.5 million of its customers who are expected to be in the path of natural disasters.
The programme runs its own algorithms to keep track of significant weather occurrences and natural disasters in Australia, providing the bank with data that can be used to forecast who would benefit from offers of same-day financial aid.
In March 2021, CBA contacted 80,000 customers who had been affected by the Perth bushfires as a result of the model’s initial findings.
This figure will change as we continue to carefully watch what’s happening in the flood-affected states of NSW, Victoria, and Tasmania, the official said.
Customer engagement engine (CEE), the system CBA employs to convey pertinent messages to users in its banking apps, is the primary method of touch with customers.
The model and its connection to the CEE have been improved, according to McMullan, over the past 1.5 years.
As events develop, this “allows us to update consumer communications more frequently,” he said.
The bank had also improved its data sources “so we can more precisely anticipate potential repercussions.”
With the floods currently occurring on Australia’s east coast, CBA may now “handle many natural catastrophe event categories concurrently.”
In addition to its Emergency Assistance Package, he said the bank is looking into additional data sources that would allow it to give precise updates to clients and companies, such as “the position of a nearby temporary pop-up branch or ATM, or adjustments to service hours in the region.”
