Scotiabank Centre for Customer Analytics awarded $1.8M in funding

Smith professors to develop leading-edge tools for Canada’s financial industry

Kingston, ON – A financial services project at Smith’s Scotiabank Centre for Customer Analytics (SCCA) has received a $900,000 grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)’s Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) Grant program. This funding has been matched by Scotiabank for a total $1.8M.

The multi-phase project will look at several areas of technology in financial services, including large-scale customer behaviour analysis, risk evaluation, price and resource optimization, big data and online algorithms.

This funding will enable researchers to develop tools and models to ensure Canada’s financial industry continues to be a technological leader, creating innovative products to help customers.

“This project is an incredible example of government, the private sector and professors and students collaborating on important applied research in the financial industry,” said Yuri Levin, executive director and Smith chair of analytics at Smith School of Business.

“We are pleased to enhance the important, customer-focused research coming out of Smith and the Scotiabank Centre for Customer Analytics,” said Michael Zerbs, chief technology officer at Scotiabank. “The collaboration between the students and professors at the Scotiabank Centre for Customer Analytics is helping Scotiabank to reshape and enhance the customer experience. These students are our future leaders and Scotiabank’s goal is to help ensure that they have the necessary skills and resources they need to support their success.”

Intended to foster mutually beneficial collaborations expected to result in industrial and economic benefits to Canada, CRD Grants give companies that operate from a Canadian base access to the unique knowledge, expertise, and educational resources available at Canadian postsecondary institutions.

“NSERC’s Research Partnerships program supports strong R&D collaborations and dynamic interchange between academia and partners,” said Dr. Marc Fortin, vice-president, research partnerships, NSERC. “We are proud to support this collaboration that will help Canadian banks remain innovative and competitive by incorporating the best analytics practices in their operations. They will tackle various emerging issues in the banking industry which will provide many tangible and intangible benefits to Canada, like better customer satisfaction and better risk management.”

The Scotiabank Centre for Customer Analytics opened at Smith in January 2016. Scotiabank pledged $2.2M in support of the Centre, with some of the funding tied to various NSERC research grant programs. The Centre builds on Queen’s research leadership in big data and advanced research computing.

About Smith

Smith School of Business at Queen’s University is renowned for its excellence, innovation and leadership in business education. From establishing the first undergraduate business degree a century ago to creating ground-breaking programs and courses in emerging areas including artificial intelligence, fintech, analytics, cultural diversity, team dynamics, social impact and more, Smith is at the forefront of preparing you for the business marketplace. In addition to its rich tradition of academic and teaching excellence, Smith is known for delivering an outstanding learning and development experience. Small class sizes, personal attention, individual and team coaching, opportunities for specialization, and a deep commitment to student success characterize the Smith experience.

About Scotiabank

Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and Asia-Pacific. We are dedicated to helping our 24 million customers become better off through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of more than 89,000 employees and assets of over $923 billion (as at January 31, 2018), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (TSX: BNS) and New York Exchanges (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @Scotiabank.

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For media inquiries:

Kristen Sears

Smith School of Business

613.533.6118 / k.sears@queensu.ca