FICO

Harnessing the power of alternative data 

The secret sauce of underwriting varies from lender to lender and is often a closely guarded secret. Increasingly important is the use of “alternative data” – a variety of information about a prospective borrower that, while not directly related to credit, has proven to hold great predictive value. Using alternative data means a lot of data to sort through and find patterns. Accordingly, the latest advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are put to work by lenders and data providers to get the most out of this data.