Virtual Exam NLP RFI.pdf

National Credit Union Administration Natural Language Processing

Request for Information

1. PURPOSE

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is the independent federal agency that regulates, charters, and supervises federal credit unions throughout the United States and its territories. The NCUA insures savings in federal and most state-chartered credit unions through the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), a federal fund backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government. The NCUSIF insures the savings of more than 135 million credit union account holders. The NCUA administers the Federal Credit Union Act created by Congress to serve, protect, and promote a safe, stable national system of cooperative financial institutions that encourage thrift and offer a source of credit for their members.

The NCUA is conducting market research of a Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool.

This Request for Information (RFI) is seeking information from the industry regarding NLP tools that could streamline manually intensive reviews of structured and unstructured data into meaningful results for faster and easier consumption by the end-user.

Note: This RFI is issued solely for informational, market research, and planning purposes.

It does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This RFI does not commit the NCUA to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, the NCUA is not seeking proposals at this time, and will not accept unsolicited proposals. The NCUA is not liable for any costs (direct or indirect) associated with the preparation, submissions or responses to the market survey or any costs associated with the NCUA’s use of the information.

Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract.

2. BACKGROUND

The NCUA seeks to improve and modernize how the agency conducts examinations and supervision. In 2017, the NCUA Board approved the Virtual Examination Program and allocated resources to research methods to conduct as many aspects of the examination and supervision processes as possible offsite. Currently, the program is in the research and discovery phase. During this phase, the Virtual Exam Team (the Team) is researching ways the Agency can harness new and emerging data, assess advancements in analytical techniques, and utilize innovative technologies. Additionally, the Team is identifying ways to improve its supervisory approach and move to a more virtual-based examination model in the next five years. The future exam model should lead to greater use of standardized interaction protocols, advanced analytical capabilities, and subject matter experts. This should result in more consistent and accurate supervisory determinations, provide greater clarity and consistency with respect to how the agency conducts supervisory oversight, and reduce coordination challenges between agency and institution

NCUA Natural Language Processing RFI staff. Through this modernization effort, the NCUA intends to reduce the burden on credit unions, improve offsite supervision capabilities, provide more consistency and standardization for the examination and supervision process, and explore and evaluate technology utilization and the industry’s interest in adopting technology.

Through research, the Team identified that NLP tools could be utilized to help drive the agency toward the virtual exam model, improve the quality of the NCUA’s risk identification and mitigation efforts, improve examination efficiencies and provide the agency with time and/or cost savings.

3. OBJECTIVE

The NCUA is conducting market research to explore the capabilities of companies that could help automate the examination and supervision program. The objective of this RFI is to invite companies with NLP platforms to provide the information requested under Section 4.

4. REQUESTED INFORMATION

The following Capabilities Questionnaire is intended to assist the NCUA in understanding your platform and how you can meet the requirements described in Section 5.

Respondents to this notice shall provide a written capabilities statement which addresses the questions outlined in the questionnaire and any relevant information that specifically addresses the company’s capabilities to provide the services outlined.

We ask that you provide a written response that includes a brief overview of your company that address the following topics and questions:

1. Discuss your experience providing NLP solutions to other companies, including any Federal government agencies. Experience working in the Federal government is desired, but not required. At a minimum, include the following for each engagement:

o Description of the engagement;

o The duration and dates of those engagements;

o Customer type (e.g. commercial, federal government, state/local government, or other) and location;

o Summary of the scope

2. Provide examples of how your technology has been successfully implemented in similar projects?

3. Documentation outlining the software’s features, capabilities, and limitations.

4. What makes your NLP processing unique?

5. How do you ensure the quality and accuracy of your NLP outputs? How do you handle bias or discrimination within the outputs?

6. What kind of technical support and maintenance will you provide after implementation?

7. What is your pricing model, what are the terms and conditions of your contracts, and any other associated costs?

The Team would appreciate any case studies or testimonials from other clients who have used your software included in your response to the RFI.

5. NLP FUNCTIONALITY

The Team will review your response to ensure that the NLP software includes the following functionality:

• Ability to process and analyze large amounts of structured and unstructured data

• Advanced natural language understanding and processing capabilities

• Customizable taxonomy and ontology support

• Robust sentiment analysis and entity extraction feature

• Integrations with our existing software tools and systems

• Strong data security and privacy protocols

6. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Interested companies are requested to respond to this RFI by 1:00 p.m. ET on May 31, 2023 in a Microsoft compatible file to: ExamModernization@ncua.gov. All responses should include the following email subject line: NCUA Natural Language Processing – Company Name. Responses shall be no more than twenty-five (25) pages with the Capabilities Questionnaire response. Price estimates will not be included in the total page count. Those who respond to this RFI should not anticipate feedback with regards to their submission other than acknowledgement of receipt.

Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. Please be advised that all submissions become the property of the Federal Government and will not be returned.

When submitting responses to this RFI, the vendor should include the following in the submittal:

Vendor Information

1. Vendor Name

2. NASA SEWP Contract Number, if applicable

3. Vendor Point of Contact (POC)

4. POC Telephone Number

5. POC Email Address

6. Cage Code

7. DUNS Number mailto:ExamModernization@ncua.gov

8. Written response to the Capabilities Questionnaire from Section 4.

9. Brief summary about how your solution could meet the stated objectives and requirements for this RFI.

The NCUA may conduct one-on-one sessions with selected vendors requesting a demonstration of their NLP software. Additionally, the NCUA may issue a Bailment Agreement from selected vendors requesting a 60-day trial period for the NCUA to test the software. Access made available no more than 30 days after the demonstration and the vendor must provide training and support for the Team during the trial period.