In the Beginning: Fair Isaac

Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FIC), founded in 1956 by engineer Bill Fair and mathematician Earl Isaac, developed the FICO scores, a measure of credit risk, that are the most used credit scores in the world. FICO scores are available through all three major consumer reporting agencies in the United States and Canada: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Over the years, the pair convinced lenders that mathematical formulas could do a better job of predicting whether an applicant would default than even the most experienced loan officers.   

Fair Isaac's client list covers more than 1,400 financial-service providers, including 99 of the top 100 U.S. banks and 49 of the top 50 global banks. More than 200 retailers, including nine of the top 10 retail card issuers in the U.S. use Fair Isaac retail management software.

Fair Isaac is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A, and has offices in North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. The company employs 3,000 people (2007) and earned revenue of about $1 billion in 2007.