GIVING DATA A CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

Although ubiquitously accepted today, the idea that a company could numerically quantify the chances that an individual would repay a loan predicated on past performance is a relatively new market phenomenon. FICO, one of the US' leading providers of consumer credit analysis, began marketing a formula to assess a purchaser's creditworthiness to banks and department stores as recently as 1956. Although the term "credit score" was popularized in the 1980s, the basic formula for determining credit worthiness has not changed -- except the degrees of automation -- since the mid-1950s. Today, credit scores influence all aspects of American life, sometimes with profound effects in situations that seem to bear little relationship to one's financial wherewithal. Decisions, as varied as admissions to hospitals for treatment to extensions of job, have been based on an individual's FICO score.