India, Aug. 27 -- The use of machine learning is ramping up across many industries, and the field of finance is no exception. The second annual survey and report from the Institute of International Finance provided some insight into the trajectory of the technology in that application of finance, as well as a sense of some of the obstacles encountered by organizations looking to deploy machine learning.

As expected, more organizations are reporting either pilots or production use of machine learning -- a full 85% in the new survey, compared to a survey conducted in 2018 in which only 58% of surveyed firms reported production or pilot projects. Credit scoring and decisioning is the most prominent application, but credit monitoring and ear...