FICO Creates New Credit Metric for Risky Consumers

Wall Street Journal
Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Millions of Americans unable to obtain credit cards, mortgages and auto loans from banks will receive a boost with the launch of a new credit score from Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO) aimed at risky consumers. The new metric is currently being tested in a pilot phase with credit-card issuers, but is set to be announced as soon as this week and rolled out nationwide by year’s end. The new score will be calculated based on consumers’ payment history with their cable, cellphone, electric and gas bills, as well as how often they change addresses and other factors. Fair Isaac said it hopes to make as many as 53 million people who don’t have credit scores more acceptable to lenders, enabling banks to boost lending volumes.