Fair Isaac and PRBC Team Up to Enhance Credit Risk Tools Used by Mortgage Industry
National Credit Reporting Association members to offer PRBC Credit Report with FICO Expansion Score
(Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA and Annapolis, Maryland, USA) - Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FIC), the leading provider of analytics and decision management technology, and Payment Reporting Builds Credit (PRBC ), a credit information repository that collects, verifies and scores rental and bill payment data, today announced a new collaboration. They will deliver PRBC Credit Report with FICO® Expansion® Score, a comprehensive credit risk management tool that U.S. mortgage lenders can use when assessing the risk of applicants who have little or no traditional credit history.
PRBC Credit Report with FICO Expansion Score combines Fair Isaac's FICO Expansion Score with the underlying, comprehensive credit report which includes:
- Rental and bill payment data from PRBC's repository;
- Non-traditional credit history data from third-party sources;
- Traditional tri-merge credit bureau data when available.
FICO Expansion Score will incorporate all these data elements when calculating the credit risk of individuals who have minimal or no credit history on file. The FICO Expansion score uses non-traditional credit data to create a score that aligns with the FICO credit score used today by most mortgage lenders, using the same 300-850® score range.
"PRBC's alliance with Fair Isaac is an important step toward freeing mortgage lenders from the expensive and time-consuming, manual underwriting procedures they encounter when they try to lend to people who have little or no documented credit experience," said Michael Nathans, founder of PRBC. "By adding PRBC's verified rent and bill payment data to Fair Isaac's FICO Expansion Score and associated credit report, we are creating a new standard for assessing the credit risk of thin-file mortgage applicants."
"Adding PRBC's bill payment data to the FICO Expansion Score will make it an even more powerful predictor of credit risk for mortgage lenders," said Tom Quinn, vice president of Global Scoring for Fair Isaac. "Lenders will be able to easily access this new package through their existing connections to NCRA credit reporting agencies. In addition to helping lenders to eventually automate a manual underwriting process, this package also can help them to expand their markets, reduce losses, and make more financial services available to more people."
Consumer reporting agencies in the National Credit Reporting Association (NCRA) will sell the new risk-assessment package to mortgage lenders and brokers.
"NCRA is excited that our members have the opportunity to be part of this revolutionary mortgage credit risk assessment product," said Terry Clemans, NCRA's Executive Director. "The alliance between Fair Isaac and PRBC, combined with data from our membership that has been verified to higher standards than the industry has been accustomed to, will help lenders originate sustainable mortgage loans for an historically overlooked and underserved segment of home buyers."
The bill payment and rental histories tracked by PRBC are not found at the national credit reporting agencies, nor are the other non-traditional sources of consumer data tapped by the FICO Expansion Score. The PRBC Credit Report with FICO Expansion Score will provide lenders with their best tool for assessing the credit risk of nearly 50 million adults who have little or no credit history on file, including recent immigrants and young adults. Businesses can use PRBC Credit Report with FICO Expansion Score to make more financial services available to more people who have missed out on opportunities simply because they lack a traditional credit history.
About PRBC
PRBC is a consumer reporting agency that collects, stores, scores, and reports bill payment data in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It is the first credit repository to give prospective borrowers the tools to demonstrate their creditworthiness without the need to go into debt. PRBC receives payment data from financial institutions' bill payment services when consumers choose to have their payments reported. In addition, PRBC has partnered with the National Credit Reporting Association to use industry best practices to verify trade line accounts and up to three years worth of prior payments that consumers can report directly to PRBC.
PRBC Reports meet Fannie Mae's, Freddie Mac's, and FHA's standards for documenting creditworthiness in the absence of a traditional credit history. PRBC does not charge consumers a fee to enroll in the service or to view their own payment data. Consumers and businesses can learn more about PRBC at www.prbc.com.
About NCRA
The National Credit Reporting Association, Inc. (NCRA) is a non-profit trade association founded in 1992 that represents the Consumer Reporting Industry and specifically Mortgage Credit Reporting Agencies. NCRA represents more than 95 of the 120 Credit Reporting Agencies in the United States and Puerto Rico that produce the specialized Mortgage Credit Reports as required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, (HUD) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for mortgage loan underwriting. NCRA members provide the mortgage lending community in excess of 3,000,000 mortgage credit reports per month.
About Fair Isaac
Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FIC) combines trusted advice, world-class analytics and innovative applications to help businesses make smarter decisions. Fair Isaac's solutions and technologies for Enterprise Decision Management turn strategy into action and elevate business performance by giving organizations the power to automate more decisions, improve the quality of their decisions, and connect decisions across their business. Clients in 80 countries work with Fair Isaac to increase customer loyalty and profitability, cut fraud losses, manage credit risk, meet regulatory and competitive demands, and rapidly build market share. Information about FICO® Expansion® Score is available through Fair Isaac's business and consumer portal website at www.myFICO.com/Business.
Fair Isaac Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Information
Except for historical information contained herein, the statements contained in this press release that relate to Fair Isaac, including statements regarding its FICO® Expansion® Score and the benefits to be derived from this offering, and the relationship described herein, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including any unforeseen technical difficulties related to the implementation, use and functionality of the offering, the risks that customers will not perceive material benefits from the offering, failure of the product to deliver the expected results, the possibility of errors or defects in the offering, regulatory changes applicable to the use of consumer credit and other data, and other risks described from time to time in Fair Isaac's SEC reports, including its Annual Report for the year ended September 30, 2006, and quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2007. Forward-looking statements should be considered with caution. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, Fair Isaac's results could differ materially from Fair Isaac's expectations in these statements. Fair Isaac disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.