FICO


FICO, 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. Its FICO score, a measure of consumer credit risk, 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.

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, FICO pitched its system to fifty American lenders.
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, this name was changed to Fair Isaac Corporation in 2003. The company renamed itself FICO in 2009.

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

Acquisitions

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.
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.

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