Data mining, as already noted, is a component of the knowledge discovery process. It can be defined as a set of techniques that allows data analysis and exploration in order to discover significant rules or hidden models within large archives by means of an entirely or partially automated procedure (Berry, Linoff, 1997). The activation information mode model.

The graphic representations were developed for the DBInspector project, which was financed by the EC under the Esprit programme. Partners in the project were: the Bank of Italy, Southampton University’s Parallel Applications Centre, the Centre for Information and Financing Technologies of the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan (CeTIF), AIS and Trento University. The same software was used in another EC-financed project, again as a part of Esprit.

In this project it is used to carry out behaviour analyses on Banca Monte dei Paschi s.p.a.’s customers, in order to spot potential clusters of customers interested in savings management. The other partners, besides the bank, are Southampton University’s Parallel Applications Centre, were CeTIF of Milan’s Catholic University and AIS.