FICO (legal name: Fair Isaac Corporation), originally Fair, Isaac and Company, is a 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 dollars for the fiscal year of 2020.[5]
Historyedit
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 changesedit
Originally called Fair, Isaac and Company (hence the abbreviation FICO), this name was changed to Fair Isaac Corporation in 2003.[8]
Headquarters movesedit
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]
^"FICO shuffles executive ranks under new CEO". Twin Cities Business. 25 April 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
^"How FICO became 'the' credit score". finance.yahoo.com. 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
^ abcAnn Carrns (10 May 2012). "Is That Credit Score a FICO, or a FICO 8?". New York Times. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
^Evan Nemeroff (7 March 2014). "New FICO Scoring Model Coming This Summer". National Mortgage News. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
^Transcribers, Motley Fool (2020-11-10). "Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript". The Motley Fool. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
^ abDean 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.
^Jennifer Bjorhus (2013-01-04). "Fair Isaac moving its HQ back to California". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2014-11-02.