Modern finance · 1950s–1990s
1989
The FICO score
A single credit score becomes the standard for US lending.
Fair Isaac, founded in 1956, introduced its general-purpose FICO score in 1989. Lenders adopted it to judge borrowers quickly and consistently.
💡 Why it made sense then
Scoring replaced a loan officer's judgement with a consistent formula.
Ideas it gave us
- 🏦 Credit score
A credit score is a number, usually from 300 to 850 in the US, that estimates how likely a person is to repay debts. Higher scores get cheaper loans.
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