The Banking Transactions Dataset and its Comparative Analysis with Scale-free Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a large banking transaction network dataset, analyzes its structural properties, and compares it to scale-free networks, providing insights into the topology and dynamics of financial transaction systems.

Contribution

It presents the first publicly available intra-bank transaction dataset and offers a comprehensive analysis comparing banking networks with scale-free network models.

Findings

Banking network exhibits scale-free properties in degree and strength distributions.

Weighted and unweighted network analyses reveal distinct topological features.

Comparison shows unique characteristics of banking networks compared to generic scale-free networks.

Abstract

We construct a network of 1.6 million nodes from banking transactions of users of Rabobank. We assign two weights on each edge, which are the aggregate transferred amount and the total number of transactions between the users from the year 2010 to 2020. We present a detailed analysis of the unweighted and both weighted networks by examining their degree, strength, and weight distributions, as well as the topological assortativity and weighted assortativity, clustering, and weighted clustering, together with correlations between these quantities. We further study the meso-scale properties of the networks and compare them to a randomized reference system. We also analyze the characteristics of nodes and edges using centrality measures to understand their roles in the money transaction system. This will be the first publicly shared dataset of intra-bank transactions, and this work highlights the unique characteristics of banking transaction networks with other scale-free networks.