Risk Tops European Banks’ Analytic Priorities — But Should It?

Analytic investments are priorities for banks across Europe, who are looking not better risk management, better identification of customer needs and better capital management. This is evident in the results of FICO and Efma’s seventh European Credit Risk Outlook, published on Tuesday. More than 40% of respondents say they will...

Join Us For FICO World 2013

How are companies using Big Data analytics to understand and collaborate with today’s connected consumer? Join us at FICO World 2013 to discover answers from experts and network with your banking peers. Registration is now open for the conference, which will be held April 30-May 3 in Miami. FICO World...

Do Lender Overlays Reduce Opportunity Along With Risk?

Since the mortgage crisis, many media articles have been written about the overlays that lenders impose on top of the minimum credit quality standards established by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD. Overlays are put in place because lenders, responsible for origination decisions, may not feel the criteria are strict...

Russians Missing More Credit Payments

We are starting to see a worrying trend in Russia, a country that has generally had very good credit performance over the last couple of years. According to the FICO Credit Health Index prepared by FICO and the National Bureau of Credit Histories (NBKI), Russia’s leading credit bureau, Russian borrowers’...

Application Fraud: You Had Me At "Hello"

Physical security specialists will tell you that the best way to avoid a burglary is to use both visible and diverse deterrents. These can range from sensor/timed lights, to having multi-point locks on all doors and windows, to installing intruder alarms, etc. The greater the number and combination of deterrents,...

The "Computer Says No" Myth

There’s a common fallacy that computers – because they have no souls – turn down loan requests automatically, whereas bankers – some of whom may have souls – are more likely to look at all the facts and say “yes.” This myth popped up again last week, when SME business...

FICO Award Winners Demonstrate How Analytics Fuels Success

If you’re looking for evidence of how predictive analytics and decision management technology can transform business results, you can start with the winners of the 2012 FICO Decision Management Awards. Fiserv, Interbank, President’s Choice and insurer Universal American were named winners of our second set of awards today. For more...

New UK Data Highlights Small Business Credit Gap

The UK Federation of Small Businesses released new data on Monday showing that its members continue to find credit difficult to obtain. Half the small businesses surveyed say they intend to grow, and 22% of them had applied for credit in Q2, but of those 42.4% had been declined, a...

Can Cheap Money Beat the Profitability Paradox?

The big financial news in the UK today is that the Bank of England will give around £80 billion to UK banks at below-market rates, for them to lend to consumers and businesses. The government expects this "funding for lending" scheme to expand lending, thereby stimulating the economy and helping...

A Better Way to Treat Inquiries

In my last post, I discussed the specialized logic in the FICO® Score that accounts for loan rate shopping by consumers. As a quick refresh, this includes the score treating all student loan, auto and mortgage inquiries within a 45-day period as a single inquiry—what’s called an inquiry “deduplication (dedupe)...