FICO® scores help lenders make accurate, reliable and fast credit risk decisions across the customer lifecycle. The scores rank-order consumers by how likely they are to pay their credit obligations as agreed. As the most widely used broad-based risk scores, FICO® scores play a critical role in billions of decisions each year. Originally released in the US, FICO® scores are now deployed in 21 countries.
- Learn
- Evaluate
- Connect
Download Product Sheet (PDF)
- Extend credit with confidence
FICO® scores are highly predictive measures of applicant and customer risk. Lenders can better determine, for example, which consumers to target, how much credit to extend and whether to raise a credit line. - Improve decisioning speed
Scores can be delivered almost instantly, speeding up credit decisions. Automation reduces costs and frees up staff to focus on more strategic tasks. - Achieve consistency—and
compliance
FICO® scores help lenders make consistent, unbiased risk decisions, and support compliance with national, local and global regulatory requirements, such as Basel II. Fair Isaac works to ensure the scores are understood and accepted by regulators worldwide. - Get the score widely accepted by industry
leaders
In the US, these include Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA in the mortgage secondary market; and Standard & Poor's and Fitch IBCA ratings agencies that enable securitization of industry loan pools into bond securities.
- Broad-based view of risk
FICO® scores provide a consolidated view of how consumers repay credit obligations, including accounts held by other lenders. The scores are empirically built using credit bureau data from millions of consumers. - Fresh data leads to sharper scores
FICO® scores are updated regularly to reflect changes in consumer behavior and lending practices. - One score, multiple scorecards for
targeted risk control
Each scorecard is tuned to assess risk for a specific consumer segment—for instance, consumers with serious delinquencies. To streamline model updates, scorecards are aligned to reflect similar risk across FICO® scoring systems and releases. - Reason codes aid in compliance and
customer ties
FICO® scores come with reason codes that indicate why the score was not higher. These support regulatory compliance and communication with consumers so they can improve their credit standing over time. - Unmatched expertise, dedicated support
Five decades of analytics experience not only helps us build a better score, but provide superior support through white papers, articles and webinars, and a Credit Bureau Scores Helpline.
- FICO® 08
score
Validations show that the newest FICO® score will deliver 5%-15% lift for credit shoppers and nonprime consumers. The score also protects lenders from authorized user abuse, among other benefits. - US availability
FICO® scores are available at the three major credit reporting agencies—as BEACON® at Equifax; FICO® Risk Score, Classic at TransUnion; and Experian / Fair Isaac Risk Model at Experian. - Industry-specific options
Industry-specific scores assess risk for targeted credit products, such as auto and bankcard. They are available at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. - Custom risk assessment
For even more precise decisions, Fair Isaac can develop custom risk scores based on your proprietary data, and tailored to your products and customers.
- Canada, South Africa, UK
FICO® scores are available in Canada as BEACON® at Equifax and as EMPIRICA® at TransUnion; in South Africa as EMPIRICA® at Trans Union; and in the UK as CallScore at CallCredit. - Global availability
FICO® scores can be deployed in any country with bureau dataregardless of whether it's full-positive, partial-positive or negative-only data. Currently, FICO® scores are deployed in 17 additional countries in every region around the world. Learn more
"Fair Isaac Corp. developed the FICO® credit score, used by more than 90% of the largest lenders."
The Wall Street Journal, Jilian Mincer, September 25, 2007
"If you're thinking of buying a house, there's one number that's more important than all the others. It's not your salary. It's not your savings account balance. It's not even the price of the house. It's your credit score. ...The nation's most widely used scoring formula, called FICO, was developed by Minneapolis-based Fair Isaac Corp. and became commercially available in 1989. FICO® was adopted widely by mortgage lenders in the late 1990s after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac endorsed it."
Washington Post, Dina ElBoghdady, January 20, 2007
Get precise metrics on how FICO® scores can improve your credit decisions. Fair Isaac can perform model validations that consider your unique business needs when evaluating our scores. Contact the Credit Bureau Scores Helpline for more information.
Conference
InterACT 09: The New Face of Risk
March 10-13, 2009, New York City
Hear customer successes, exchange ideas and see
new product releases at the Decision Management conference.
Learn more
Webinar
FICO® 08 score, an even better FICO® score- November 4, 2008, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST
Learn more
Webinar
Managing risk in the credit crunch- December 3, 2008, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST
Learn more
For more information on FICO® scores in the US, contact the Fair Isaac Credit Bureau Scores Helpline at 800-777-2066 or cbhelpline@fairisaac.com. Outside the US, contact 612-758-5200 or info@fairisaac.com
1-888-342-6336
