FICO

FICO (legal name: Fair Isaac Corporation), originally Fair, Isaac and Company, is a data analytics company based in San Jose, California 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.

For other uses, see FICO (disambiguation).
Fair Isaac Corporation
FICO
TypePublic
IndustryComputer
Founded1956 (as Fair, Isaac, and Company)
Headquarters
San Jose, California
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • William Lansing
  • (CEO)[1]
  • Bill Fair
  • (co-founder)
  • Earl Isaac
  • (co-founder)
ProductsFICO Score
ServicesComputer software
RevenueUS$1.295 billion (2020)
US$295.97 million (2020)
US$236.41 million (2020)
Total assetsUS$1.606 billion (2020)
Total equityUS$331.08 million (2020)
Number of employees
4,003 (2020)
Websitewww.fico.com

In 2013, lenders purchased more than 10 billion FICO scores and about 30 million American consumers accessed their scores themselves.[4]

History

FICO was founded in 1956 as Fair, Isaac and Company by engineer William R. "Bill" Fair and mathematician Earl Judson Isaac.[5] The two met while working at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California.[6] Selling its first credit scoring system two years after the company's creation,[7] FICO pitched its system to fifty American lenders.[8]

FICO went public in 1986 and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.[5] 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.[9]

Lenders use the scores to gauge a potential borrower's creditworthiness.[10]

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.[11]

Name changes

Originally called Fair, Isaac and Company (hence the abbreviation FICO), this name was changed to Fair Isaac Corporation in 2003.[7] The company renamed itself FICO in 2009.[12]

Headquarters moves

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.[13] In 2013, it moved its headquarters to San Jose, California, a year after CEO William Lansing joined.[14]

Acquisitions
  • DynaMark 1992[15]
  • Risk Management Technologies 1997[16]
  • Prevision 1997[17]
  • Nykamp Consulting Group 2001[18]
  • HNC Software 2002[19]
  • NAREX 2003[20]
  • Diversified Healthcare Services 2003[21]
  • Seurat (2003)[22]
  • London Bridge Software 2004[23]
  • Braun Consulting 2004[24]
  • RulesPower 2005[25]
  • Dash Optimization 2008[26]
  • Entiera 2012[27]
  • Adeptra 2012[28]
  • CR Software 2012[29]
  • Infoglide 2013[30]
  • InfoCentricity 2014[31]
  • Karmasphere 2014[32]
  • TONBELLER AG 2015[33]
  • QuadMetrics 2016[34]
  • GoOn 2018[35]
  • EZMCOM 2019[36]

Operations

FICO is headquartered in San Jose, California, and it has additional U.S. locations in Roseville, Minnesota; San Diego; San Rafael, California; Fairfax, Virginia; New York City and Austin, Texas.[37]

The company has international locations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Poland, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Kingdom.[37]

FICO score
Main article: Credit score in the United States § FICO score

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.[38] FICO scores are also offered in other markets, including Mexico and Canada,[39] as well as through the fourth U.S. credit reporting bureau, PRBC.[40]

References
  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. 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. Dean Foust; Aaron Pressman (2008-02-06). "Credit Scores: Not-So-Magic Numbers". Retrieved 2014-11-02.
  6. Jennifer Bjorhus (2013-01-04). "Fair Isaac moving its HQ back to California". Retrieved 2014-11-02.
  7. About Us | FICO — FICO official Web site
  8. Adriene Hill (2014-04-22). "A brief history of the credit score". Retrieved 2014-11-02.
  9. "What is a FICO score?". MyFICO.com official website. Fair Isaac Corporation. Retrieved 2016-11-11.
  10. Ann Carrns (2012-05-03). "Report Finds Improvement in Credit Scores". Retrieved 2014-11-02.
  11. "North American Credit Scoring & Reporting". benbest.com. 2009-12-04. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
  12. FICO Unveils New Ticker Symbol on New York Stock Exchange Archived March 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine — FICO official Web site
  13. Dan Fost (11 May 2004). "Fair Isaac moving its hub / Most company executives already set up in Minnesota". SFGate. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  14. Pete Carey (4 January 2013). "FICO moves headquarters to San Jose". Mercury News. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
  15. "FICO consolidating operations in Roseville". twincities.com. 2012-06-22. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  16. "RMT Merges with Fair, Isaac". July 1997. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  17. "Bruce D D'Ambrosio". buy-sell-econtent.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-05-14.
  18. "Fair, Isaac to acquire Nykamp Consulting". 2001-12-12. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  19. "Fair Isaac merging with HNC Software". 2002-04-30.
  20. "Narex sold for $10M". 2003-07-28. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  21. "Fair Isaac Acquires Diversified HealthCare". 2003-09-19. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  22. "California firm buys Seurat". 2003-10-06. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  23. "Fair Issac offers $166m for London Bridge Software". 2004-04-26.
  24. "Fair Isaac and Braun Consulting Announce Acquisition Agreement". 2004-09-24. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  25. "Fair Isaac Acquires RulesPower Technology to Advance Business Rules Capabilities". 2005-09-28. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  26. "Fair Isaac Acquires Dash Optimization, Bringing Increased Power". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  27. Howard Pankratz (2012-05-09). "Denver-based Entiera acquired by FICO". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  28. "FICO completes $115M acquisition of Adeptra". finance.yahoo.com. Yahoo!. September 10, 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  29. Ed Stych (2012-11-26). "FICO buys collections and receivables software company". Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  30. "Infoglide Software acquired by credit score giant FICO". 2013-04-04. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  31. "FICO Set to Acquire InfoCentricity". 2014-03-14. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  32. "FICO Adds Big Data Analytics for Hadoop to FICO Analytic Cloud". 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  33. "FICO Acquires TONBELLER". Archived from the original on 2015-06-07. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  34. "FICO Will Offer Enterprise Security Score for Organizations". Retrieved 2016-11-02.
  35. "FICO Acquires GoOn to Advance Growth in Brazil". Retrieved 2016-11-02.
  36. "FICO Acquires EZMCOM". Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  37. "Office Locations". Archived from the original on 2014-11-04. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  38. Credit Reporting Agencies — FICO official Web site
  39. "FICO Score for International Markets". fico.com. FICO. 2017.
  40. Fair Isaac and PRBC Team Up to Enhance Credit Risk Tools Used by Mortgage Industry — FICO official Web site
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