Tag Archives: FICO

You may have seen recent news articles about the consumer reporting agencies removing certain derogatory public record information from their credit files, and you may be wondering, what type of information is being removed. Knowing what impact this will have to your consumer applicant pool is key.

Credit availability in the mortgage industry increased slightly in the fourth quarter, reversing a long-time downward trend over the last four quarters. However, credit access is not the same across the board.

The H.R. 4211 bill, or the “Credit Score Competition Act of 2015,” would allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider alternative credit-scoring models instead of just the FICO model, which would provide homebuying options for many consumers whose credit does not meet the current standards.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently made headlines when congress members said that the GSEs had a monopoly on their credit scoring system due to their singular use of the FICO score.

As of now, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac only consider the FICO credit scoring model when making mortgage purchase decisions.

According to an announcement from the bank on Wednesday, Chase is simplifying its jumbo loan product offerings by lowering FICO and down payment requirements on loans as much as $3 million.

FICO has announced it is expanding its Score Open Access program, which offers complimentary credit score access to consumers with credit management problems. Now, the program will also provide credit and financial counseling to approximately one million Americans.

After extensive research, data scientists from FICO found that info such as property records, telecommunications, and utility information can be used as reliable sources to score 15 million consumers who do not have enough credit data to generate FICO score. By using this alternative data from LexisNexis and Equifax, FICO will give card issuers a FICO score that complies with relevant regulations that they can use to extend credit responsibly to millions of additional people.

Fewer than one-third of American consumers have a passable understanding of their financial rights, according to a new study from FICO. In a comprehensive survey of U.S. bank customers, the analytics company found only 30 percent of those quizzed about their financial rights earned a passing grade, with only 1 percent achieving an A (with 92 percent of responses correct).

The company responsible for one of the most widely used measures of credit health is making changes to its current model that could boost credit scores nationwide. While the changes may have a significant impact on approval rates for credit cards and auto loans, the effects will be more subtle for borrowers and lenders in the mortgage space, says Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for personal finance website Bankrate.com.