US-based FICO has made a name for itself with its eponymous credit score. It is now working with Indian banks and fintechs to automate and quicken their credit decisioning process
William Lansing, chief executive of FICO
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Long before the word fintech came into vogue, there was FICO (Fair Isaac and Company). Set up in 1956 by a mathematician and engineer team of William Fair and Earl Issac, the company started off with the idea of applying analytics to problems to make better business decisions. What started off initially as a software firm graduated to financial services because, when money is involved, the stakes are bigger and businesses are more willing to pay for data-driven decisions. Through the 1950s, 60s and 70s, they would make analytic software for banks and financial institutions and, very often, it boiled down to a score that these institutions wanted to rank customers. This gave rise to the FICO score, which is the most widely used credit score in USA, and a software business, both of which bring in annual $900 million in revenue each.
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In a conversation with Forbes India, William Lansing, chief executive of FICO, talks about the scoring as well as the software business and why analytics in business decisioning will only increase in the years to come.
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