Nationwide Building Society Will Create Strategic Risk Infrastructure with FICO Business Rules System

World’s largest building society will centralize decisions on FICO Blaze Advisor® business rules system to improve risk decisioning

LONDON--()--FICO (NYSE:FICO), the leading provider of analytics and decision management technology, today announced that Nationwide Building Society, the world’s largest building society, has selected FICO™ Blaze Advisor® business rules management system for its Strategic Risk Infrastructure initiative. Once fully implemented, FICO Blaze Advisor will be the single risk engine that Nationwide uses to automate all risk decisions for mortgage lending and personal loans initially, with roll-out to the rest of the portfolio in the future.

Nationwide’s Strategic Risk Infrastructure initiative aims to give its risk management group greater agility to respond to changes in customer behavior, markets and regulations. FICO Blaze Advisor enables risk managers to quickly change decision strategies, dramatically improving agility and business performance.

FICO Blaze Advisor will meet Nationwide’s demands for greater decision consistency by providing a single decision engine for all of Nationwide’s risk decisions, replacing the disparate systems currently used in its mortgage and personal loans operations. It will also improve decisions through better data quality, and reduce the complexity and cost of the building society’s infrastructure. FICO Blaze Advisor will provide an enterprise rule repository allowing rules to be deployed on different platforms, including Java, COBOL and .NET.

With 15 million members and more than £190 billion in assets, Nationwide is the world’s largest building society, and one of the top three savings providers and mortgage lenders in the UK.

“To serve our members with the most competitive prices, our team needs to be able to adjust to the market faster,” said Henry Jordan, head of retail credit risk at Nationwide Building Society. “By using FICO Blaze Advisor, we can continuously update our policies and offers, while keeping our risk at the appropriate level. FICO provided the most comprehensive, flexible and cost-effective way for us to manage decisions across our enterprise.”

“Like the most forward-looking financial institutions, Nationwide is investing in centralized decision management to improve agility and stay ahead in a highly competitive market,” said Mike Gordon, FICO vice president and managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “This is a big change from the past, when every channel, product and decision area required a different point system. FICO provides a decision management platform that gives lenders and insurers sharper control over risk while substantially reducing IT complexity and cost.”

FICO™ Blaze Advisor® is the world’s leading business rules management system (BRMS), delivering unparalleled speed and agility in the deployment and management of high-volume, automated decisions. FICO Blaze Advisor enables business users to easily design, deploy, execute and maintain business rules and policies as part of an automated business application.

About FICO
FICO (NYSE:FICO), formerly known as Fair Isaac, delivers superior predictive analytics solutions that drive smarter decisions. The company’s groundbreaking use of mathematics to predict consumer behavior has transformed entire industries and revolutionized the way risk is managed and products are marketed. FICO’s innovative solutions include the industry-leading solutions for measuring credit risk, managing credit accounts, identifying and minimizing the impact of fraud, and customizing consumer offers with pinpoint accuracy. Most of the world’s top banks, as well as leading insurers, retailers, pharmaceutical companies and government agencies, rely on FICO solutions to accelerate growth, control risk, boost profits and meet regulatory and competitive demands. Learn more at www.fico.com. FICO: Make every decision count.

For FICO news and media resources, visit www.fico.com/news.

Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Information
Except for historical information contained herein, the statements contained in this news release that relate to FICO or its business are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including the success of the Company’s Decision Management strategy and reengineering plan, the maintenance of its existing relationships and ability to create new relationships with customers and key alliance partners, its ability to continue to develop new and enhanced products and services, its ability to recruit and retain key technical and managerial personnel, competition, regulatory changes applicable to the use of consumer credit and other data, the failure to realize the anticipated benefits of any acquisitions, continuing material adverse developments in global economic conditions, and other risks described from time to time in FICO’s SEC reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2010 and its last quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2011. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes, FICO’s results could differ materially from its expectations. FICO disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

FICO, Blaze Advisor and “Make every decision count” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the United States and in other countries.

Contacts

Media:
For FICO
Catalysis
Peggy Schelter, +44 (0)20 7759 2021
peggy.schelter@catalysis.co.uk
or
Investors/Analysts:
FICO
Steven Weber, 800-213-5542
investor@fico.com

Contacts

Media:
For FICO
Catalysis
Peggy Schelter, +44 (0)20 7759 2021
peggy.schelter@catalysis.co.uk
or
Investors/Analysts:
FICO
Steven Weber, 800-213-5542
investor@fico.com