S&P to Accept NextGen FICO Scores

Standard & Poor's will accept Fair, Isaac and Co.'s Next Generation FICO credit risk score in its forthcoming mortgage analytics model, Fair Isaac has announced.As of April 1, S&P will use the NextGen FICO scores in version 5.6 of its LEVELS model to assess risk and predict losses associated with mortgage-backed securities, the San Rafael, Calif.-based Fair Isaac said. NextGen scores "offer lenders a more advanced alternative to Fair, Isaac's classic FICO credit bureau scores, the industry-standard decision solution used to make billions of credit decisions each year," the company said. The new scores offer an expanded score range, multidimensional characteristic analysis, and additional scorecards. The companies can be found online at http://www.fairisaac.com and http://www.standardandpoors.com.