FICO, Lenddo to develop credit score for Indians

FICO, a global credit rating agency, has partnered with Lenddo, an expert in credit and verification technologies, to develop a credit risk score for consumers in India.

It will give lenders improved certainty around the risk assessment of people with 'thin-files' – those who don't have enough data in their credit report to score.

Richard Eldridge, co-founder and chief executive at Lenddo, said, "We believe that helping qualified low-and middle-income consumers gain access to credit will improve their lives and quite possibly transform Indian society. Defeating the need of a credit history to obtain a loan is essential to bring unserved but qualified consumers into the formal economy and giving them access to mainstream financial institutions.”

Jim Wehmann, EVP of Scores at FICO, said, "We see our partnership with Lenddo as a great synergy of analytics and scoring innovation, which we hope will give millions of creditworthy individuals access to credit. We already have received a very positive response in India from financial institutions, the regulators and government, and we look forward to announcing more very soon," said Jim Wehmann, EVP of Scores at FICO.