More consumers nearing perfect FICO® Scores, but are scores improving?

My colleagues in FICO Labs monitor FICO® Scores and how they move over time. In our most recent review, we continue to see the effects of consumers’ scores moving up AND down. At the high end of the score distribution, the number of consumers in the 800-850 range is at...

Russians' credit health is strengthening

Much of the focus on the Russian election this week has put a spotlight on how far the country has come since perestroika and the end of the Cold War. Yesterday FICO released our own analysis on an interesting part of the country’s picture: the credit health of Russian consumers....

Rising Stars v. Fallen Angels: Insights into changing credit behavior

FICO® Score migration patterns offer significant insight into consumer credit behavior. There's much to be learned by exploring these patterns—particularly whose score went up, whose went down and whose stayed the same—during dynamic economic times. We've just published new research analyzing score movement during recent economic volatility, from October 2006...

Recession causes FICO® Score swings

Last month I posted that the national distribution of FICO® 8 Scores has had two major shifts during the recession. Some readers were puzzled that the observed shifts weren’t significantly larger, in light of the sour US economy. Actually, what appear to be small national shifts are quite dramatic changes,...

FICO® Scores Shift During Recession

A comparison of nationwide FICO® Scores from 2005-2011 illustrates that score distribution has remained relatively stable at a national level. However a close look at the numbers suggests that U.S. lenders have experienced two distinct phases of consumer credit risk in the recession thus far. Early in the recession, lenders...

Auto risk on the decline

New auto risk is on the decline. Recent FICO research shows lower delinquency rates and better performance on new auto loans opened in May-June 2009 compared to those opened in May-June 2008. This trend holds true across the entire FICO® 8 Score range. As an example, in the 12 months...

How do FICO® 8 scores change the score distribution?

One reason there are more consumers today with scores at the high and low ends of the 300-850® score range for FICO® Scores is that we have improved the FICO scoring models. The newest version — the FICO 8 Score — is a stronger predictor of future credit risk. Because...

How much do FICO® Scores change over time?

- Posted by Tom Quinn, FICO® Score Product Manager There has been a lot of focus on the changing FICO® Score distribution recently. The topic that naturally goes hand-in-hand with this is score migration: In other words, how much do individual borrowers' scores change over time. Every time the FICO®...

FICO® Scores drift downward

- Posted by Tom Quinn, FICO® Score Product Manager A comparison of nationwide FICO® Scores from 2008, 2009 and 2010 indicates that consumer credit risk has increased over the past two years. The distribution of FICO Scores drifted down slightly on FICO’s 300-850® score range and score performance shifted in...

Welcome to the FICO Banking Analytics blog — why are we here?

- Posted by Tom Quinn, FICO® Score Product Manager Today's bankers are information junkies. We should know - as the creators of the FICO® score and other predictive analytics solutions, we are constantly providing our clients with new research and insights into credit trends. We created this blog to share...