Journal of Digital Market and Digital Currency
Vol. 3 No. 1 (2026): Regular Issue March 2026

Deep Learning-Based Loan Approval Prediction Using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Feature Importance Analysis

Sheeba Armoogum (Information and Communication Technologies, University of Mauritius, Reduit 80837, Mauritius)
Deshinta Arrova Dewi (Faculty of Data Science and Information Technology, INTI International University, Nilai, Malaysia)
Vinaye Armoogum (University of Technology, Mauritius, La Tour Koenig 11134, Mauritius)
Nicolas Melanie (University of Mauritius, Reduit 80837, Mauritius)
Tri Basuki Kurniawan (Postgraduate Program, Universitas Bina Darma, Palembang, Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
16 Feb 2026

Abstract

The increasing demand for efficient and objective credit evaluation has motivated the adoption of artificial intelligence in financial decision-making. This study proposes a deep learning-based loan approval prediction model using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) combined with feature importance analysis to enhance interpretability. The dataset, consisting of 2,000 loan application records with both financial and demographic attributes, was preprocessed through normalization and one-hot encoding to ensure consistent feature representation. The ANN model was trained using three hidden layers (64–32–16 neurons) with the ReLU activation function and optimized using Adam with early stopping to prevent overfitting. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed ANN model achieves an accuracy of 92%, with a precision of 0.91, a recall of 0.93, and a ROC-AUC of 0.95, indicating excellent classification capability. The Permutation Feature Importance analysis revealed that Credit Score, Income, and Loan Amount are the most significant predictors influencing loan approval decisions. These findings confirm that the ANN model can capture complex non-linear relationships among financial attributes while maintaining transparency through explainable AI techniques. The proposed approach contributes both theoretically and practically by combining predictive power with interpretability, offering a reliable and explainable framework for automating loan evaluation in modern financial institutions.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

JDMDC

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT Decision Sciences, Operations Research & Management Economics, Econometrics & Finance

Description

Journal of Digital Market and Digital Currency publishes high-quality research on: Digital Marketing Digital Currencies Cryptocurrency Trends Blockchain Applications Fintech Innovations Our goal is to provide a platform for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to share innovative findings, ...