Credit score maker Fico eyes bigger share in India's consumption story

livemint.com:

HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and AU Small Finance Bank being the early users. “We are in a moment in time when the Indian economy is poised to spring with consumer consumption, consumer credit, unsecured lending, all of which are to happen here in a significant way," said Lansing. Lansing said that the platform was built over a decade and has been sold to 100 of the top 300 global financial institutions.

He said that the data used in this platform will reside in India. While the Fico score is also available in India apart from other markets, it is not very big here since it is built on credit card payment data and India does not have significant credit card penetration. There were 95 million credit cards in India at the end of October, as per data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

“India has very low credit card penetration — under 100 million cards — and so we do not have the credit card payment data like most other countries and that is what we build our score on," said Lansing. However, the software platform takes into account all kinds of data that are predictive of good behaviour, he said. These include rental payment data, utility payment data, income coming into bank accounts, besides others.

Lansing said all of that can predict whether an individual has good credit or bad. “India is uniquely positioned because everyone has a bank account and that is a big opportunity," said Lansing. Lansing said Fico has been in India for 20 years and has employees in Bengaluru who do research and development (R&D) work for the company.

The Fico Platform was largely built in India. The company has about 1,300 employees in India and a majority of them are in the R&D division in Bengaluru. “I was with a chief executive officer