To provide consumers with basic information about credit scores, Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Fair Isaac have prepared a new free brochure that is being distributed by the Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC). "This credit score brochure contains the most important information about the score most businesses use—the FICO® credit score—including what factors influence its rise and fall, and how consumers can get their own scores," said Cheri St. John, vice president of Global Scoring and Consumer Solutions for Fair Isaac.

"The Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) is proud to work with CFA and Fair Isaac to distribute this very valuable consumer resource,” said Mary Levy, FCIC's director of Consumer Information and Education. "This public/private sector partnership means that more consumers will get the information they need to manage their credit, improve their credit scores and get the best possible credit terms the marketplace has to offer. It's a win-win-win situation for the consumer, the credit industry and the government."

"Despite all of the news coverage about credit scores over the past year, many consumers still do not understand important facts about these increasingly influential numbers," said Stephen Brobeck, CFA's executive director.

According to a new survey by the CFA and Fair Isaac, almost one-half of American consumers do not understand key facts about credit scores:

• 49% do not understand that credit scores measure credit risk
• 45% incorrectly think that increasing one's income will increase one's credit score

To get a free copy of this brochure, titled “Your Credit Scores,” consumers can contact the Federal Citizen Information Center at 1 (888) 8 PUEBLO (1-800-878-3256) or by writing to the following address: Credit Scores, Pueblo, CO 81009. The brochure is also available online to consumers at three different websites: www.pueblo.gsa.gov, http://www.myfico.com/, and http://www.consumerfed.org/.

Fair Isaac and Your Credit Card Companies, a group of financial services companies with a shared commitment to value and quality service for consumers, have teamed up to offer consumers valuable information on how to understand, help and avoid making mistakes with their credit scores.

The Federal Reserve reports in a Summer 2004 study that nearly 74% of Americans have credit scores of 661 or above. Such a score, according to the study, indicates that the majority of consumers are low credit risks and are likely to be eligible for lower interest rates on loans, credit cards and mortgages.

Through its website at http://www.yourcreditcardcompanies.com/ and other consumer information initiatives, Your Credit Card Companies provides credit resources and a variety of tools that help consumers better understand how credit works, understand and protect their total credit pictures and manage debt. Its membership includes Chase Manhattan Bank USA, N.A.; Citigroup; Discover Card; MasterCard International; and MBNA.

eFunds Corporation, a leading provider of risk management, electronic payments and global outsourcing solutions, will deploy Fair Isaac's Falcon™ Fraud Manager 5.1 solution in its payment processing data centers. eFunds is the first client to implement the newest version of the industry-standard payment card fraud detection solution, which helps businesses streamline operations for even greater control over fraud losses.

Falcon Fraud Manager uses a combination of sophisticated neural network models, patented account profiling technologies, case management and flexible, user-definable intelligent rules to analyze payment card transactions for the most subtle signs of fraud, enabling financial institutions to take immediate measures to stop fraudulent transactions.
 
Version 5.1 features a complete redesign of the Falcon solution, including a new architecture, and significant case and rules management technology enhancements. The new solution will allow eFunds to offer participating card issuers access to highly effective fraud prevention technology that enables them to streamline resources, achieve significant cost savings, and maintain focus on card portfolio growth and enhanced customer service.

"Fair Isaac has been a valuable partner of eFunds in our ongoing efforts to provide reliable, advanced processing solutions that help financial institutions efficiently automate payment transactions and fraud prevention," said Rob Myhre, vice president of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Processing at eFunds. "Our customers have expressed a strong interest in a solution that accurately scales with their increasing transaction volumes and provides more flexible rules capabilities, while continuing to deliver the highest level of cardholder fraud protection. Falcon 5.1 helps us to address these needs."

The latest version of Fair Isaac's Falcon Fraud Manager is built on a new modular platform that simplifies implementation, maintenance and future upgrades with less demand on eFunds' IT resources. Written in Java, with a web-based workstation, Falcon 5.1 allows eFunds to offer its card issuers more flexibility for rules and case management in eFunds' multi-client environment. The enhanced solution also offers an expanded, configurable Application Program Interface (API), which provides users with more flexibility by enabling them to add their own custom variables.

Standard Bank, South Africa's largest financial institution, is implementing Fair Isaac's TRIAD™ adaptive control system to improve risk assessment and profitability in its credit card division.

Standard Bank will replace its existing credit risk management software with TRIAD 7, which integrates predictive analytics, decision-making software, expert strategy consulting and the most advanced decision engine technology to help lenders automate and execute account management decisions across the enterprise.

In addition to applying consumers' credit card behavioral data to drive improved credit risk decisions, TRIAD will enable Standard Bank to more efficiently manage credit lines and overdue accounts and customers, and will help minimize transactions needing further intervention.

"We chose Fair Isaac and PIC Solutions as our partners in this project because of their superior expertise in the South African financial services community, and the globally proven flexibility and predictive power of Fair Isaac's TRIAD technology," said Douglas Walker, director of Card Credit at Standard Bank. "TRIAD enables a much more informed and focused approach to serving our credit card portfolio and customers, and helps ensure that our credit card strategies and policies provide us with a distinct advantage in a competitive banking environment."

MicroBilt Corporation, an information provider that helps banks and businesses reduce risk, will become the first reseller of Fair Isaac's FICO® Expansion score to the financial services industry.
 
FICO Expansion score taps non-traditional sources of consumer data to help lenders assess credit risk for the estimated 50 million US adults who cannot receive a traditional FICO® score because they have little or no credit history on file at traditional credit bureaus.

"By adding Fair Isaac's new score to our decisioning applications, MicroBilt will help lenders confidently expand into the credit-underserved market," said Ken Hill, president of MicroBilt. "The FICO brand is widely respected throughout the financial services industry, and we're pleased to be the first to add Fair Isaac's newest, innovative score to our product line."

"MicroBilt is well positioned to help lenders and other businesses easily access the FICO Expansion score and open up the credit-underserved market," said Lisa Nelson, vice president of Fair Isaac Credit Services, Inc. “Providing access to our score through value-add resellers such as MicroBilt should accelerate lenders' ability to bring better credit offers to millions of consumers who have little or no credit history."