SAN JOSE, Calif.–FICO is now accepting credit union and bank applications for its 2023 Inclusion Accelerator program.
The program is designed to directly support banks and credit unions that wish to “responsibly expand lending to underserved segments of their membership, including members who have little or no credit histories, and those who have positive financial histories that aren’t reflected in their credit reports,” according to FICO.
According to FICO, enrollees will receive a package of in-kind services valued at up to $10,000, including access to new financial inclusion analytics and strategies. The package includes:
- Complementary access to FICO’s leading alt data scores for financial inclusion, FICO Score XD and UltraFICO Score
- Financial inclusion lending strategy design consulting
- Complementary pass to FICO World
- Inclusion Accelerator Program user forum
First CU Selected
“We’re happy to be the first credit union selected for FICO’s Inclusion Accelerator Program,” said Chad Cash, COO of Carolina FCU, in a statement. “We partnered with FICO on a pilot program in the past for FICO Score 10. It was a great experience, and the project was a success. When they reached out about the new program that allows us to try UltraFICO Score and FICO Score XD, we jumped on the opportunity immediately and we look forward to seeing what these new scores will do for our credit union.”
‘Significant Investment in R&D’
Added Sally Taylor, VP and general manager for FICO Scores, “FICO has made significant investments in research and development to support greater financial inclusion through robust analytics for the past decade. Now we’re expanding that investment by directly supporting a cohort of up to 10 organizations that want to develop and test more inclusive lending strategies. We’ve learned that many smaller banks and credit unions think they must invest in expensive and time-consuming implementations of custom AI-based underwriting solutions to expand their lending. Many are relieved to learn they can do the same, with no upfront investments, simply by leveraging the entire family of FICO Scores rather than the FICO Score based on traditional credit bureau data alone.”
Credit unions can request an application by emailing Sharon Tilley, Inclusion Accelerator program manager, at sharontilley@fico.com. The deadline to apply is May 30.
Feeling the FOMO Fever? CUToday.info Has a Prescription
Are you missing out on the latest news in credit unions? Missing the trends and developments you need to be aware of? We can help. Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more.
And it’s free!
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com