FICO

American credit score services company

For other uses, see FICO (disambiguation).

Fair Isaac Corporation

FICO's former headquarters in San Jose

Trade name

| FICO
Company type| Public company

Traded as

* NYSE: FICO
* S&P 500 component

Industry| Computer
Founded| 1956; 69 years ago (1956) (as Fair, Isaac, and Company)
Headquarters| Bozeman, Montana, U.S.

Area served

| Worldwide

Key people

* William Lansing
* (CEO)[1]
* Bill Fair
* (co-founder)
* Earl Isaac
* (co-founder)

Products| FICO Score
Services| Computer software
Revenue|  US$1.295 billion (2020)

Operating income

|  US$295.97 million (2020)

Net income

|  US$236.41 million (2020)
Total assets|  US$1.606 billion (2020)
Total equity|  US$331.08 million (2020)

Number of employees

| 3,305 (December 31, 2022)
Website| fico.com

FICO (legal name: Fair Isaac Corporation), originally Fair, Isaac and Company, is an American data analytics company based in Bozeman, Montana, focused on credit scoring services. It was founded by Bill Fair and Earl Isaac in 1956.[2] Its FICO score, a measure of consumer credit risk,[3] has become a fixture of consumer lending in the United States.

In 2013, lenders purchased 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 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 mathematician Earl Judson Isaac.[6] The two met while working at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California.[7] Selling its first credit scoring system two years after the company's creation,[8] FICO pitched its system to fifty American lenders.[9]

FICO went public in July 1987[10] and is traded on the New 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 Mae and Freddie Mac first 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 in San Rafael, California, FICO moved its headquarters to Minneapolis, 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 US Department of Justice (DOJ) opened an antitrust investigation into FICO, which was reported to be closed in December 2020.[39][40] In March 2024, US Senator Josh Hawley sent a letter to the DOJ's Antitrust Division urging them to open an investigation into FICO for anti-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 antitrust class action lawsuits were filed against FICO involving "business to business" purchases of FICO scores, with the plaintiffs alleging that FICO maintains monopoly power through anticompetitive agreements and charges artificially inflated prices for FICO scores.[44][45] In September 2023 US District Judge Edmond Chang ruled that the plaintiffs, which include credit unions, banks, mortgage lenders, 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 in Bozeman, Montana and it has additional U.S. locations in San Jose, California, Roseville, Minnesota, San Diego, California, San Rafael, California, Fairfax, Virginia, and Austin, Texas.[46]

The company has international locations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United 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 scores are available through all of the major consumer reporting agencies in the United States: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.[47] FICO scores are also offered in other markets, including Mexico and Canada,[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. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
2. ^ "How FICO became 'the' credit score". finance.yahoo.com. 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
3. ^ a b c Ann Carrns (10 May 2012). "Is That Credit Score a FICO, or a FICO 8?". New York Times. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
4. ^ Evan Nemeroff (7 March 2014). "New FICO Scoring Model Coming This Summer". National Mortgage News. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
5. ^ "Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript". The Motley Fool. 2020-11-10. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
6. ^ a b Dean Foust; Aaron Pressman (2008-02-06). "Credit Scores: Not-So-Magic Numbers". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on August 14, 2012. Retrieved 2014-11-02.
7. ^ Jennifer Bjorhus (2013-01-04). "Fair Isaac moving its HQ back to California". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2014-11-02.
8. ^ a b About Us | FICO — FICO official Web site
9. ^ Adriene Hill (2014-04-22). "A brief history of the credit score". Retrieved 2014-11-02.
10. ^ "Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Fair, Isaac and Company, Incorporated". FICO.com. December 30, 1996. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
11. ^ "What is a FICO score?". MyFICO.com official website. Fair Isaac Corporation. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
12. ^ Ann Carrns (2012-05-03). "Report Finds Improvement in Credit Scores". Retrieved 2014-11-02.
13. ^ "North American Credit Scoring & Reporting". benbest.com. 2009-12-04. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
14. ^ Dan Fost (11 May 2004). "Fair Isaac moving its hub / Most company executives already set up in Minnesota". SFGate. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
15. ^ Pete Carey (4 January 2013). "FICO moves headquarters to San Jose". Mercury News. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
16. ^ "Silicon Valley Analytics Pioneer FICO Announces Expansion in Bozeman, Montana". FICO. Retrieved 2022-09-21.
17. ^ "FICO consolidating operations in Roseville". twincities.com. 2012-06-22. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
18. ^ "RMT Merges with Fair, Isaac". July 1997. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
19. ^ "Bruce D D'Ambrosio". buy-sell-econtent.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-05-14.
20. ^ "Fair, Isaac to acquire Nykamp Consulting". 2001-12-12. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
21. ^ Fost, Dan (2002-04-30). "Fair Isaac merging with HNC Software". Sfgate.
22. ^ "Narex sold for $10M". 2003-07-28. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
23. ^ "Fair Isaac Acquires Diversified HealthCare". Los Angeles Times. 2003-09-19. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
24. ^ "California firm buys Seurat". 2003-10-06. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
25. ^ "Fair Issac offers $166m for London Bridge Software". 2004-04-26.
26. ^ "Fair Isaac and Braun Consulting Announce Acquisition Agreement". 2004-09-24. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
27. ^ "Fair Isaac Acquires RulesPower Technology to Advance Business Rules Capabilities". 2005-09-28. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
28. ^ "Fair Isaac Acquires Dash Optimization, Bringing Increased Power". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
29. ^ Howard Pankratz (2012-05-09). "Denver-based Entiera acquired by FICO". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
30. ^ "FICO completes $115M acquisition of Adeptra". finance.yahoo.com. Yahoo!. September 10, 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
31. ^ Ed Stych (2012-11-26). "FICO buys collections and receivables software company". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
32. ^ "Infoglide Software acquired by credit score giant FICO". 2013-04-04. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
33. ^ "FICO Set to Acquire InfoCentricity". 2014-03-14. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
34. ^ "FICO Adds Big Data Analytics for Hadoop to FICO Analytic Cloud". 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
35. ^ "FICO Acquires TONBELLER". Archived from the original on 2015-06-07. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
36. ^ "FICO Will Offer Enterprise Security Score for Organizations". Retrieved 2016-11-02.
37. ^ "FICO Acquires GoOn to Advance Growth in Brazil". Retrieved 2016-11-02.
38. ^ "FICO Acquires EZMCOM". Retrieved 2019-10-02.
39. ^ Nylen, Leah (2020-03-13). "DOJ opens antitrust probe into credit score giant Fair Isaac". Politico. Archived from the original on 2023-03-14. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
40. ^ "FICO Announces DOJ Antitrust Investigation Closed". FICO. 2020-12-08. Archived from the original on 2021-04-22. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
41. ^ KTTN News (2024-03-13). "FICO faces scrutiny for anti-competitive behavior in credit scoring". KTTN-FM. Archived from the original on 2024-03-13. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
42. ^ Albright, Ty (2024-03-12). "Hawley calls on DOJ to investigate FICO for anti-competitive practices". KZRG. Archived from the original on 2024-03-27. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
43. ^ Nunes, Flávia Furlan (2024-03-21). "Senator urges DOJ to investigate FICO over increasing costs to mortgage lenders". HousingWire. Archived from the original on 2024-05-20. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
44. ^ a b Scarcella, Mike (2023-09-29). "FICO loses bid to dismiss antitrust claims over credit-scoring market". Reuters. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
45. ^ a b "FICO Loses Bid to Dismiss Antitrust Claims Over Credit-Scoring Market". Competition Policy International. 2023-10-01. Archived from the original on 2024-06-26. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
46. ^ a b "Office Locations". Archived from the original on 2014-11-04. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
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 website
* Business data for Fair Isaac Corporation:

* Google
* Reuters
* SEC filings
* Yahoo!

* How Does FICO Calculate a Score?