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FICO

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, seeFICO (disambiguation).
Fair Isaac Corporation
FICO
Company typePublic company
IndustryComputer
Founded1956;68 years ago(1956)(as Fair, Isaac, and Company)
HeadquartersBozeman, Montana,U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • William Lansing
  • (CEO)[1]
  • Bill Fair
  • (co-founder)
  • Earl Isaac
  • (co-founder)
ProductsFICO Score
ServicesComputer software
RevenueIncreaseUS$1.295 billion(2020)
IncreaseUS$295.97 million (2020)
IncreaseUS$236.41 million (2020)
Total assetsIncreaseUS$1.606 billion (2020)
Total equityIncreaseUS$331.08 million (2020)
Number of employees
3,305 (December 31, 2022)
Websitewww.fico.com

FICO(legal name:Fair Isaac Corporation), originallyFair, Isaac and Company,is adata analyticscompany based inBozeman, Montana,focused oncredit scoringservices. It was founded byBill FairandEarl Isaacin 1956.[2]ItsFICO score,a measure of consumer credit risk,[3]has become a fixture of consumer lending in the United States.

In 2013,lenderspurchased more than 10 billion FICO scores and about 30 million American consumers accessed their scores themselves.[4]The company reported a revenue of $1.29 billion dollars for the fiscal year of 2020.[5]

History[edit]

FICO was founded in 1956 as Fair, Isaac and Company by engineer William R. "Bill" Fair and mathematicianEarl Judson Isaac.[6]The two met while working at theStanford Research InstituteinMenlo Park, California.[7]Selling its first credit scoring system two years after the company's creation,[8]FICO pitched its system to fifty Americanlenders.[9]

FICO wentpublicin July 1987[10]and is traded on theNew York Stock Exchange.[6]The company debuted its first general-purpose FICO score in 1989.[3]FICO scores are based on credit reports and "base" FICO scores range from 300 to 850,[3]while industry-specific scores range from 250 to 900.[11]

Lenders use the scores to gauge a potential borrower's creditworthiness.[12]

Fannie MaeandFreddie Macfirst began using FICO scores to help determine which American consumers qualified for mortgages bought and sold by the companies in 1995.[13]

Name changes[edit]

Originally called Fair, Isaac and Company (hence the abbreviation FICO), this name was changed to Fair Isaac Corporation in 2003.[8]

Headquarters moves[edit]

Originally based inSan Rafael, California,FICO moved its headquarters toMinneapolis, Minnesota,in 2004, a few years after Minnesota resident Thomas Grudnowski took over as CEO.[14]In 2013, it moved its headquarters to San Jose, California, a year after CEO William Lansing joined.[15]In 2016 it opened an office in Bozeman, Montana which later became its headquarters.[16]

Acquisitions[edit]

  • DynaMark 1992[17]
  • Risk Management Technologies 1997[18]
  • Prevision 1997[19]
  • Nykamp Consulting Group 2001[20]
  • HNC Software 2002[21]
  • NAREX 2003[22]
  • Diversified Healthcare Services 2003[23]
  • Seurat (2003)[24]
  • London Bridge Software 2004[25]
  • Braun Consulting 2004[26]
  • RulesPower 2005[27]
  • Dash Optimization 2008[28]
  • Entiera 2012[29]
  • Adeptra 2012[30]
  • CR Software 2012[31]
  • Infoglide 2013[32]
  • InfoCentricity 2014[33]
  • Karmasphere 2014[34]
  • TONBELLER AG 2015[35]
  • QuadMetrics 2016[36]
  • GoOn 2018[37]
  • EZMCOM 2019[38]

Antitrust issues[edit]

In March 2020, the USDepartment of Justice(DOJ) opened an antitrust investigation into FICO, which was reported to be closed in December 2020.[39][40]In March 2024, US SenatorJosh Hawleysent a letter to the DOJ'sAntitrust Divisionurging them to open an investigation into FICO foranti-competitive practices,stating that the company "appears to be using its monopolistic power over the credit scoring market to increase costs for mortgage lenders."[41][42][43]

Between 2020 and 2023, at least 10 antitrustclass-actionlawsuits were filed against FICO involving "business to business" purchases of FICO scores, with the plantiffs alleging that that FICO maintains monopoly power through anticompetitive agreements and charges artificially inflated prices for FICO scores.[44][45]In September 2023 US District JudgeEdmond Changruled that the plantiffs, which include credit unions, real estate brokerages, auto dealers, and other companies, had presented enough evidence that FICO had violated antitrust law to allow the lawsuits to proceed.[44][45]

Operations[edit]

FICO is headquartered inBozeman, Montanaand it has additional U.S. locations inSan Jose, California,Roseville, Minnesota,San Diego, California,San Rafael, California,Fairfax, Virginia,andAustin, Texas.[46]

The company has international locations inAustralia,Brazil,Canada,China,Germany,India,Italy,Japan,South Korea,Lithuania,Malaysia,thePhilippines,Poland,Russia,Singapore,South Africa,Spain,Taiwan,Thailand,Turkey,and theUnited Kingdom.[46]

FICO score[edit]

Main article:Credit score in the United States § FICO score
See also:Criticism of credit scoring systems in the United States

A measure of credit risk,FICO scoresare available through all of the majorconsumer reporting agenciesin theUnited States:Equifax,Experian,andTransUnion.[47]FICO scores are also offered in other markets, includingMexicoandCanada,[48]as well as through the fourth U.S. credit reporting bureau,PRBC.[49]

References[edit]

  1. ^"FICO shuffles executive ranks under new CEO".Twin Cities Business. 25 April 2012.Retrieved21 October2014.
  2. ^"How FICO became 'the' credit score".finance.yahoo.com. 2013-12-12.Retrieved2018-08-25.
  3. ^abcAnn Carrns (10 May 2012)."Is That Credit Score a FICO, or a FICO 8?".New York Times.Retrieved21 October2014.
  4. ^Evan Nemeroff (7 March 2014)."New FICO Scoring Model Coming This Summer".National Mortgage News.Retrieved21 October2014.
  5. ^Transcribers, Motley Fool (2020-11-10)."Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript".The Motley Fool.Retrieved2021-05-04.
  6. ^abDean Foust; Aaron Pressman (2008-02-06)."Credit Scores: Not-So-Magic Numbers".Bloomberg.com.Archived fromthe originalon August 14, 2012.Retrieved2014-11-02.
  7. ^Jennifer Bjorhus (2013-01-04)."Fair Isaac moving its HQ back to California".Star Tribune.Retrieved2014-11-02.
  8. ^abAbout Us | FICO— FICO official Web site
  9. ^Adriene Hill (2014-04-22)."A brief history of the credit score".Retrieved2014-11-02.
  10. ^"Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Fair, Isaac and Company, Incorporated".FICO.com.December 30, 1996.RetrievedJune 13,2023.
  11. ^"What is a FICO score?".MyFICO.com official website.Fair Isaac Corporation.Retrieved2016-11-11.
  12. ^Ann Carrns (2012-05-03)."Report Finds Improvement in Credit Scores".Retrieved2014-11-02.
  13. ^"North American Credit Scoring & Reporting".benbest.com. 2009-12-04.Retrieved2015-05-13.
  14. ^Dan Fost (11 May 2004)."Fair Isaac moving its hub / Most company executives already set up in Minnesota".SFGate.Retrieved21 October2014.
  15. ^Pete Carey (4 January 2013)."FICO moves headquarters to San Jose".Mercury News.Retrieved21 October2014.
  16. ^"Silicon Valley Analytics Pioneer FICO Announces Expansion in Bozeman, Montana".FICO.Retrieved2022-09-21.
  17. ^"FICO consolidating operations in Roseville".twincities.com. 2012-06-22.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  18. ^"RMT Merges with Fair, Isaac".July 1997. Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-04.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  19. ^"Bruce D D'Ambrosio".buy-sell-econtent.com. Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-04.Retrieved2015-05-14.
  20. ^"Fair, Isaac to acquire Nykamp Consulting".2001-12-12.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  21. ^Fost, Dan (2002-04-30)."Fair Isaac merging with HNC Software".Sfgate.
  22. ^"Narex sold for $10M".2003-07-28.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  23. ^"Fair Isaac Acquires Diversified HealthCare".Los Angeles Times.2003-09-19.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  24. ^"California firm buys Seurat".2003-10-06.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  25. ^"Fair Issac offers $166m for London Bridge Software".2004-04-26.
  26. ^"Fair Isaac and Braun Consulting Announce Acquisition Agreement".2004-09-24.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  27. ^"Fair Isaac Acquires RulesPower Technology to Advance Business Rules Capabilities".2005-09-28.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  28. ^"Fair Isaac Acquires Dash Optimization, Bringing Increased Power".Bloomberg News.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  29. ^Howard Pankratz (2012-05-09)."Denver-based Entiera acquired by FICO".Retrieved2014-10-30.
  30. ^"FICO completes $115M acquisition of Adeptra".finance.yahoo.com.Yahoo!. September 10, 2012.Retrieved4 November2014.
  31. ^Ed Stych (2012-11-26)."FICO buys collections and receivables software company".Retrieved2014-10-30.
  32. ^"Infoglide Software acquired by credit score giant FICO".2013-04-04.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  33. ^"FICO Set to Acquire InfoCentricity".2014-03-14.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  34. ^"FICO Adds Big Data Analytics for Hadoop to FICO Analytic Cloud".2014-05-16.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  35. ^"FICO Acquires TONBELLER".Archived fromthe originalon 2015-06-07.Retrieved2015-05-21.
  36. ^"FICO Will Offer Enterprise Security Score for Organizations".Retrieved2016-11-02.
  37. ^"FICO Acquires GoOn to Advance Growth in Brazil".Retrieved2016-11-02.
  38. ^"FICO Acquires EZMCOM".Retrieved2019-10-02.
  39. ^Nylen, Leah (2020-03-13)."DOJ opens antitrust probe into credit score giant Fair Isaac".Politico.Archivedfrom the original on 2023-03-14.Retrieved2024-06-26.
  40. ^"FICO Announces DOJ Antitrust Investigation Closed".FICO.2020-12-08.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-04-22.Retrieved2024-06-26.
  41. ^KTTN News (2024-03-13)."FICO faces scrutiny for anti-competitive behavior in credit scoring".KTTN-FM.Archived fromthe originalon 2024-03-13.Retrieved2024-06-26.
  42. ^Albright, Ty (2024-03-12)."Hawley calls on DOJ to investigate FICO for anti-competitive practices".KZRG.Archivedfrom the original on 2024-03-27.Retrieved2024-06-26.
  43. ^Nunes, Flávia Furlan (2024-03-21)."Senator urges DOJ to investigate FICO over increasing costs to mortgage lenders".HousingWire.Archived fromthe originalon 2024-05-20.Retrieved2024-06-26.
  44. ^abScarcella, Mike (2023-09-29)."FICO loses bid to dismiss antitrust claims over credit-scoring market".Reuters.Retrieved2024-06-26.
  45. ^ab"FICO Loses Bid to Dismiss Antitrust Claims Over Credit-Scoring Market".Competition Policy International.2023-10-01.Archivedfrom the original on 2024-06-26.Retrieved2024-06-26.
  46. ^ab"Office Locations".Archived fromthe originalon 2014-11-04.Retrieved2014-10-30.
  47. ^Credit Reporting Agencies— FICO official Web site
  48. ^"FICO Score for International Markets".fico.com.FICO. 2017.
  49. ^Fair Isaac and PRBC Team Up to Enhance Credit Risk Tools Used by Mortgage Industry— FICO official Web site

External links[edit]

  • Official websiteEdit this at Wikidata
  • Business data for Fair Isaac Corporation:
  • How Does FICO Calculate a Score?
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