Joanne Gaskin

A core pillar of promoting and sustaining widespread access to credit is ensuring high levels of financial literacy. Unfortunately, the U.S. lags behind many other countries in financial literacy, meaning millions of Americans lack the resources they need to chart a healthier financial future. But thanks to nonprofit organizations like Operation HOPE — which collabora…

When we launched FICO’s “Score A Better Future” program in October 2018, our main goal was to continue to expand consumer credit access through financial education. Our mantra, “Your FICO^® Score today doesn’t have to be your FICO Score in the future” still holds true today. These free events are designed to demystify credit and give consumers the tools – including non…

At FICO, we are continuously innovating scoring products and services that create greater financial inclusion across communities and empower lenders’ decision making. We are a longtime leader in incorporating alternative data, which is typically not housed at the credit bureaus, to help expand credit access for consumers who are otherwise ineligible for a traditional…

If you have ever applied for credit, the lender reviewing your application most likely pulled your credit report and credit score. What makes up a credit report and why could credit scores be different across lenders? The FICO Score is the credit score used in 90% of lending decisions. For a quick refresher on what the FICO Score is and isn’t (for example, the FICO…

You may have heard that alternative data holds great potential for expanding access to credit to more consumers to help them achieve their financial goals. Indeed, more data can enable credit score providers like FICO to provide a more complete snapshot of consumers’ credit behavior and potential risk. While FICO has been the leader in developing innovative ways to in…

I had the chance to attend the Structured Finance Industry Group’s annual conference in Las Vegas, where SFIG’s members, including securities investors in a range of industries — from mortgage to auto to commercial lending — gather to discuss the latest and greatest in securitization. During the conference, FICO also took the opportunity to survey these investors abou…

What is a financial goal that you would like to achieve? Attendees at FICO’s recent Score A Better Future events in St. Louis and Atlanta told us their goals range from starting a business, to owning a home to saving for retirement, to paying down debt. In fact, for many, these goals were key motivators for attending the events. In speaking further with the atte…

Last week, FICO kicked off its Score A Better Future program with a community event focused on credit education at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, MO. It was the first of our new series of free educational events across the country that bring together consumer advocates, credit educators and community leaders to help consumers learn about credit scores and…

How credit scores are generated and their role in the U.S. mortgage origination process can be a confusing topic. To help alleviate confusion, I want to take a moment to provide a high-level overview of the role credit scores have in the mortgage lending and automated underwriting process. This is particularly important for conforming mortgages or mortgages sold to go…

Americans who don’t have a FICO score present both an opportunity and a challenge for lenders. Lenders are keen to extend credit to consumers in new market segments, but need to ensure they’re making risk-aware decisions. Some lenders are asking can scoring trended data, or more accurately, trended credit bureau data, as some credit score companies claim, actually…

There has been much discussion and several studies over the years regarding the potential value of leveraging rental data in assessing consumer credit risk. Which raises the question: Should rental data be widely reported to the three primary consumer credit agencies (CRAs)? If rental data was reported, this might mean some consumers without loans or credit cards w…

Securitization plays a key role in driving increased liquidity in the mortgage market, ensuring that banks can fund more loans, at lower cost. This in turn gives consumers greater access to affordable mortgages. FICO Scores, of course, play an important role in the risk management and transparency that powers the secondary market. Now VantageScore is claiming that…