Case Study: ABSA Bank achieves 60% up‑sell uptake and stronger risk & compliance with SAS Business Analytics

Integrate, analyze, understand big data

Absa Bank (part of the Barclays Group) faced the challenge of turning an unwieldy data estate into business value. Its enterprise data warehouse held 144 billion records (165 TB) across 11.8 million customers and 16 million accounts, supported by 500 core applications and 1,800 interfaces. IT and business leaders needed a way to integrate, analyze and present this information so executives would see the strategic benefits rather than just the costs and compliance burdens.

Absa elevated SAS Business Analytics from a tactical tool to a strategic platform, created an analytical innovation team, secured executive sponsorship and launched focused pilots (credit risk/scoring, lead generation, text mining). The program delivered measurable results: stronger marketing and risk strategies that drove financial gains, more effective compliance and anti‑money‑laundering efforts, and up‑sell test uptakes of around 60%.

ABSA Bank

Dev Govender

Head of Enterprise Management