 | |
 Former headquarters in San Jose | |
| FICO | |
| Company type | Public |
| Industry | Data analytics |
| Founded | 1956 (as Fair, Isaac, and Company) |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | Bozeman, Montana, US |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | William Lansing (CEO)[1] |
| Products | FICO score |
| Services | Computer software |
| Revenue |  US$1.99 billion (2025) |
| US$925 million (2025) | |
| US$652 million (2025) | |
| Total assets | US$1.87 billion (2025) |
| Total equity |  −US$1.7 billion (2025) |
Number of employees | 3,811(2025) |
| Website | www |
| Footnotes / references [2] | |
FICO (legal name: Fair Isaac Corporation), originally Fair, Isaac and Company, is an American data analytics company based in Bozeman, Montana, focused on credit scoring services. It was founded by Bill Fair and Earl Isaac in 1956.[3] Its FICO score, a measure of consumer credit risk,[4] has become a fixture of consumer lending in the United States.
In 2013, lenders purchased more than 10 billion FICO scores and about 30 million American consumers accessed their scores themselves.[5] The company reported a revenue of $1.29 billion for the fiscal year of 2020.[6]
History
FICO was founded in 1956 as Fair, Isaac and Company by engineer William R. "Bill" Fair and mathematician Earl Judson Isaac.[7] The two met while working at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California.[8] Selling its first credit scoring system two years after the company's creation,[9] FICO pitched its system to fifty American lenders.[10]
FICO went public in July 1987[11] and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.[7] The company debuted its first general-purpose FICO score in 1989.[4] FICO scores are based on credit reports and "base" FICO scores range from 300 to 850,[4] while industry-specific scores range from 250 to 900.[12]
Lenders use the scores to gauge a potential borrower's creditworthiness.[13]
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac first began using FICO scores to help determine which American consumers qualified for mortgages bought and sold by the companies in 1995.[citation needed]
Name changes
Originally called Fair, Isaac and Company (hence the abbreviation FICO), this name was changed to Fair Isaac Corporation in 2003.[9]
Headquarters moves
Originally based in San Rafael, California, FICO moved its headquarters to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2004, a few years after Minnesota resident Thomas Grudnowski took over as CEO.[14]
In 2013, it moved its headquarters to San Jose, California, a year after CEO William Lansing joined.[15]
In 2016, it opened an office in Bozeman, Montana, which later[when?] became its headquarters.[16]
Acquisitions
- DynaMark 1992[17]
- Risk Management Technologies 1997[18]
- Prevision 1997[19]
- Nykamp Consulting Group 2001[20]
- HNC Software 2002[21]
- NAREX 2003[22]
- Diversified Healthcare Services 2003[23]
- Seurat (2003)[24]
- London Bridge Software 2004[25]
- Braun Consulting 2004[26]
- RulesPower 2005[27]
- Dash Optimization 2008[28]
- Entiera 2012[29]
- Adeptra 2012[30]
- CR Software 2012[31]
- Infoglide 2013[32]
- InfoCentricity 2014[33]
- Karmasphere 2014[34]
- TONBELLER AG 2015[35]
- QuadMetrics 2016[36]
- GoOn 2018[37]
- EZMCOM 2019[38]
Antitrust issues
In March 2020, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) opened an antitrust investigation into FICO, which was reported to be closed in December 2020.[39][40] In March 2024, US Senator Josh Hawley sent a letter to the DOJ's Antitrust Division urging them to open an investigation into FICO for anti-competitive practices, stating that the company "appears to be using its monopolistic power over the credit scoring market to increase costs for mortgage lenders."[41][42][43]
Between 2020 and 2023, at least 10 antitrust class action lawsuits were filed against FICO involving "business to business" purchases of FICO scores, with the plaintiffs alleging that FICO maintains monopoly power through anticompetitive agreements and charges artificially inflated prices for FICO scores.[44][45] In September 2023 US District Judge Edmond Chang ruled that the plaintiffs, which include credit unions, banks, mortgage lenders, real estate brokerages, auto dealers, and other companies, had presented enough evidence that FICO had violated antitrust law to allow the lawsuits to proceed.[44][45]
Operations
FICO is headquartered in Bozeman, Montana and it has additional US locations in San Jose, California, Roseville, Minnesota, San Diego, California, San Rafael, California, Fairfax, Virginia, and Austin, Texas.[46]
The company has international locations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.[46]
FICO score
A measure of credit risk, FICO scores are available through all of the major consumer reporting agencies in the United States: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.[47] FICO scores are also offered in other markets, including Mexico and Canada,[48] as well as through the fourth US credit reporting bureau, PRBC.[49]
References
- ^ Harrington, Ann (April 24, 2012). "FICO Shuffles Executive Ranks under New CEO". TwinCities.com. Retrieved February 16, 2026.
- ^ FY 2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K) (Report). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. November 7, 2025.
- ^ "How FICO Became 'the' Credit Score". Yahoo Finance. Yahoo! Inc. December 12, 2013. Retrieved August 25, 2018.
- ^ a b c Carrns, Ann (May 10, 2012). "Is That Credit Score a FICO, or a FICO 8?". The New York Times. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
- ^ Nemeroff, Evan (March 7, 2014). "New FICO Scoring Model Coming This Summer". National Mortgage News. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
- ^ "Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript". The Motley Fool. November 10, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
- ^ a b Foust, Dean; Pressman, Aaron (February 6, 2008). "Credit Scores: Not-So-Magic Numbers". BusinessWeek.com. Archived from the original on August 14, 2012.
- ^ Bjorhus, Jennifer (January 4, 2013). "Fair Isaac Moving Its HQ Back to California". Star Tribune. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
- ^ a b "About Us". FICO.
- ^ Hill, Adriene (April 22, 2014). "A Brief History of the Credit Score". Retrieved November 2, 2014.
- ^ "Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Fair, Isaac and Company, Incorporated". FICO. December 30, 1996. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
- ^ "What Is a FICO Score?". MyFICO.com. FICO. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
- ^ Carrns, Ann (May 3, 2012). "Report Finds Improvement in Credit Scores". The New York Times. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
- ^ Fost, Dan (May 11, 2004). "Fair Isaac Moving Its Hub / Most Company Executives Already Set Up in Minnesota". SFGate. Retrieved February 16, 2026.
- ^ Carey, Pete (January 4, 2013). "FICO Moves Headquarters to San Jose". Mercury News. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
- ^ "Silicon Valley Analytics Pioneer FICO Announces Expansion in Bozeman, Montana" (Press release). Bozeman, Montana: FICO. October 5, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2026.
- ^ Welbes, John (June 21, 2012). "FICO Consolidating Operations in Roseville". TwinCities.com. Retrieved February 16, 2026.
- ^ "RMT Merges with Fair, Isaac". July 1997. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
- ^ "Bruce D D'Ambrosio". Buy-Sell-Econtent.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
- ^ "Fair, Isaac to Acquire Nykamp Consulting". December 12, 2001. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ Fost, Dan (April 30, 2002). "Fair Isaac Merging with HNC Software". SFGate. Retrieved February 16, 2026.
- ^ "Narex Sold for $10M". July 28, 2003. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ "Fair Isaac Acquires Diversified HealthCare". Los Angeles Times. September 19, 2003. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ "California Firm Buys Seurat". October 6, 2003. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ "Fair Issac Offers $166m for London Bridge Software". April 26, 2004.
- ^ "Fair Isaac and Braun Consulting Announce Acquisition Agreement". September 24, 2004. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ "Fair Isaac Acquires RulesPower Technology to Advance Business Rules Capabilities". September 28, 2005. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ "Fair Isaac Acquires Dash Optimization, Bringing Increased Power". Bloomberg News. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ Pankratz, Howard (May 9, 2012). "Denver-Based Entiera Acquired by FICO". Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ "FICO Completes $115M Acquisition of Adeptra". Yahoo Finance. Yahoo! Inc. September 10, 2012. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
- ^ Stych, Ed (November 26, 2012). "FICO Buys Collections and Receivables Software Company". Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ "Infoglide Software Acquired by Credit Score Giant FICO". April 4, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ "FICO Set to Acquire InfoCentricity". March 14, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ "FICO Adds Big Data Analytics for Hadoop to FICO Analytic Cloud". May 16, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- ^ "FICO Acquires TONBELLER". Archived from the original on June 7, 2015.
- ^ "FICO Will Offer Enterprise Security Score for Organizations". Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ "FICO Acquires GoOn to Advance Growth in Brazil". Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ "FICO Acquires EZMCOM". Retrieved October 2, 2019.
- ^ Nylen, Leah (March 13, 2020). "DOJ Opens Antitrust Probe into Credit Score Giant Fair Isaac". Politico. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
- ^ "FICO Announces DOJ Antitrust Investigation Closed" (Press release). FICO. December 8, 2020. Archived from the original on April 22, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
- ^ "FICO Faces Scrutiny for Anti-Competitive Behavior in Credit Scoring". KTTN-FM. March 13, 2024. Archived from the original on March 13, 2024. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
- ^ Albright, Ty (March 12, 2024). "Hawley Calls on DOJ to Investigate FICO for Anti-Competitive Practices". KZRG. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
- ^ Nunes, Flávia Furlan (March 21, 2024). "Senator Urges DOJ to Investigate FICO over Increasing Costs to Mortgage Lenders". HousingWire. Archived from the original on May 20, 2024. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
- ^ a b Scarcella, Mike (September 29, 2023). "FICO Loses Bid to Dismiss Antitrust Claims over Credit-Scoring Market". Reuters. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
- ^ a b "FICO Loses Bid to Dismiss Antitrust Claims over Credit-Scoring Market". Competition Policy International. October 1, 2023. Archived from the original on June 26, 2024. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
- ^ a b "Office Locations". Archived from the original on November 4, 2014.
- ^ "Credit Reporting Agencies". FICO.
- ^ "FICO Score for International Markets". FICO. 2017.
- ^ "Fair Isaac and PRBC Team Up to Enhance Credit Risk Tools Used by Mortgage Industry" (Press release). FICO.
External links
- Official website
- Business data for Fair Isaac Corporation:
- How Does FICO Calculate a Score?
- American companies established in 1956
- Business intelligence companies
- Business services companies established in 1956
- Business software companies
- Companies based in San Jose, California
- Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
- Data and information visualization software
- Data mining and machine learning software
- Financial technology companies
- Multinational companies headquartered in the United States
- Software companies based in Montana
- Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Financial services companies established in 1956
- Computer companies established in 1956
- Credit scoring
- 1956 establishments in California
- 1980s initial public offerings
- Software companies of the United States
- Bozeman, Montana
- Credit rating agencies
- Financial technology companies based in California
