TAL Rules versus ECA Rules: an Attempt for Comparison in the Credit Management Context

Credits are the one of the most important functions in bank management, because, from one side, thanks to a good credit policy a bank can earn money, but from the other side, in the case of weak or wrong credit policy the bank can make substantial losses. Therefore in the field of credit policy management, intelligent information systems can be very helpful, as it is a complex and heterogeneous field, needing complex management and decision-making procedures. There exist many technical solutions aimed at helping the decision-makers in this field, from “traditional” ones, as databases, to more sophisticated tools, as for example expert systems, the main aim of which is to perform the analysis of applications for a credit, thus helping to make proper credit decisions. Credit management is closely related to time, in other words, the temporal aspect of credit management can be very clearly seen. Therefore while building intelligent systems in this area, it would be recommended to take this temporal aspect into account. The article concentrates on the question of searching and choosing an intelligent computer tool which would fulfil the above mentioned requirements, the toll which would help to make necessary credit analyses, to make proper credit decisions, taking into account the temporal aspect of credit management. Two solutions are discussed: TAL language and active databases. Some exemplary credit management rules are encoded both in the TAL language and in the form of ECA rules. Both kinds of rules are analysed and discussed, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.