Company Statements / Technology

Sberbank Sets Targets for AI in Corporate Lending

The bank outlines a larger role for AI in lending decisions. The March announcement describes targets, not approval rates or completed year-end results.

2024-03-05

Application folders, documents and a microchip

Sberbank outlined plans to expand the use of artificial intelligence in corporate lending decisions on 5 March 2024. This editorial adaptation covers the target announced by chief executive German Gref, rather than a new loan product or an offer to borrowers.

A larger role in corporate lending

Reuters reported Gref's statement in Sochi that AI was involved in 40% of corporate lending decisions. The bank aimed to reach 60% by the end of 2024 and 80% by the end of 2026. These were targets at the time of the announcement.

The distinction between a decision and a loan matters when describing automation. A decision is a step in a lending process; a loan also has an amount and contractual terms. A percentage describing the first cannot simply be applied to the value of lending or treated as the chance that a particular application will succeed.

Three measures that should remain separate

Process, volume and outcome

The use of a technology describes how work is performed.
The value of loans describes the amount of financing.
An approval rate describes the outcomes of applications.

The announcement does not define every application

For a business reading a corporate technology announcement, the useful starting point is what the company actually says the measure covers. The March statement concerns the bank's intended use of AI. It does not specify an individual borrower's terms, introduce a universal response time or establish that all corporate applications follow an identical path.

It also leaves the role of particular technical systems outside this short account. The broad term artificial intelligence does not, by itself, identify a generative model or demonstrate that a process operates without human oversight. Those are separate questions requiring their own evidence. The targets reported here should therefore be read as the bank's stated direction in March, not as verified year-end results or a guarantee of access to credit.

Documents and a microchip