Building upon a 10-year track record of collaboration in the UK, Equifax and FICO recently renewed their partnership for developing risk management solution for the UK’s retail, banking and insurance industries. In a press release, the partners claimed that the new, innovative solution will be in a position to challenge the status quo in the risk management arena and help businesses in the said sectors to meet new regulatory requirements.

Equifax is one of the largest sources of consumer and commercial data, backed by advanced analytics. Large and small businesses rely on the company for consumer and business credit intelligence, portfolio management, fraud detection, decisioning technology, marketing tools, and more. Equifax also serve individual consumers by managing their personal credit information, protecting their identity, and maximizing their financial well-being.

Fico is a leading provider of predictive analytics solutions that tend to revolutionize the way products are marketed by keeping the risk factor at the minimum. FICO's innovative solutions are in use by the world’s top banks and insurers. The range of is solutions include solutions for measuring credit risk, managing credit accounts, identifying and minimizing the impact of fraud, and customizing consumer offers with pinpoint accuracy.

The jointly developed solution scheduled for a May 2011 launch will combine FICO's predictive analytics and decision management software and Equifax's data and analytics. According to the industry experts, the solution will help today’s financial services providers make sharper lending decisions based on more precise customer assessments, comply with more stringent regulatory demands and overcome the sophisticated forms of frauds. This is expected to result into increased customer loyalty.

In the press release, the companies revealed that many more joint initiatives are on the card. More information on the Equifax and FICO alliance will be available from a website on the new alliance at www.efxfico.com.

Earlier this month, Fico announced that it has extended a multi-year agreement with Equifax Canada to distribute the BEACON Score to lenders and other businesses in Canada. The renewed agreement also sets out a commitment for the two firms to work together to release an updated version of BEACON and to develop other innovative analytic solutions for the Canadian credit market.