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

Bozeman, Montana Bozeman is a city and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. Located in southwest Montana, the 2020 census put Bozeman's population at 53,293, making it the fourth-largest city in Montana. It is the principal city of th ...

, focused on credit scoring services. It was founded by

Bill Fair 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. Its FICO score, a measu ...

and

Earl Isaac Earl Judson Isaac (7 August 1921 – 12 December 1983) founded Fair, Isaac and Company along with friend William R. "Bill" Fair in 1956. They began the operation in a small studio apartment on Lincoln Avenue in San Rafael, California. Earl ...

in 1956. Its

FICO score A credit score is a number that provides a comparative estimate of an individual's creditworthiness based on an analysis of their credit report. It is an inexpensive and main alternative to other forms of consumer loan underwriting. Lenders, s ...

, a measure of consumer credit risk, has become a fixture of consumer lending in the United States. In 2013,

lenders A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property ...

purchased more than 10 billion FICO scores and about 30 million American consumers accessed their scores themselves. The company reported a revenue of $1.29 billion dollars for the fiscal year of 2020.

History

FICO was founded in 1956 as Fair, Isaac and Company by engineer William R. "Bill" Fair and mathematician Earl Judson Isaac. The two met while working at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California. Selling its first credit scoring system two years after the company's creation,About Us FICO
nbsp;— FICO official Web site FICO pitched its system to fifty American

. FICO went public in 1986 and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company debuted its first general-purpose FICO score in 1989. FICO scores are based on credit reports and "base" FICO scores range from 300 to 850, while industry-specific scores range from 250 to 900. Lenders use the scores to gauge a potential borrower's creditworthiness. 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.

Name changes

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

Headquarters moves

Originally based in San Rafael, California, FICO moved its headquarters to

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, in 2004, a few years after Minnesota resident Thomas Grudnowski took over as CEO. In 2013, it moved its headquarters to San Jose, California, a year after CEO William Lansing joined. In 2016 it opened an office in Bozeman, Montana which later became its headquarters.

Acquisitions

*DynaMark 1992 *Risk Management Technologies 1997 *Prevision 1997 *Nykamp Consulting Group 2001 *HNC Software 2002 *NAREX 2003 *Diversified Healthcare Services 2003 *Seurat (2003) *London Bridge Software 2004 *Braun Consulting 2004 *RulesPower 2005 *Dash Optimization 2008 *Entiera 2012 *Adeptra 2012 *CR Software 2012 *Infoglide 2013 *InfoCentricity 2014 *Karmasphere 2014 *TONBELLER AG 2015 *QuadMetrics 2016 *GoOn 2018 *EZMCOM 2019

Operations

FICO is headquartered in

and it has additional U.S. locations in San Jose, California; Roseville, Minnesota; San Diego; San Rafael, California; Fairfax, Virginia; and Austin, Texas. The company has international locations in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Brazil, Canada,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Germany, India, Italy,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, Korea,

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, Poland, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

FICO score

A measure of credit risk,

s are available through all of the major consumer reporting agencies in the United States:

Equifax Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and TransUnion (together known as the "Big Thr ...

Experian Experian is an American–Irish multinational data analytics and consumer credit reporting company. Experian collects and aggregates information on over 1 billion people and businesses including 235 million individual U.S. consumers and more t ...

, and TransUnion.Credit Reporting Agencies
nbsp;— FICO official Web site FICO scores are also offered in other markets, including Mexico and Canada, as well as through the fourth U.S. credit reporting bureau, PRBC.Fair Isaac and PRBC Team Up to Enhance Credit Risk Tools Used by Mortgage Industry
nbsp;— FICO official Web site

References

External links

*
How Does FICO Calculate a Score?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fico Business intelligence companies Business software companies Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Data mining and machine learning software Data visualization software Financial services companies based in California Companies based in San Jose, California Financial technology companies Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Software companies based in Montana American companies established in 1956 Business services companies established in 1956 Financial services companies established in 1956 Computer companies established in 1956 Credit scoring 1956 establishments in California 1980s initial public offerings Software companies of the United States Bozeman, Montana