The companies plan to work together to develop new credit risk assessment models for lenders looking to better serve underbanked consumers.

With the addition of FactorTrust's alternative data to the risk assessment, lenders will be able to assess the risk of consumers who may have a thin credit bureau file, or none at all - potentially leading to greater access to credit for the underbanked segment of the population.

"Alternative data can be a valuable supplement to traditional data sources for risk assessment," said Andrew Jennings, FICO's chief analytics officer and head of FICO Labs. "By combining alternative data, advanced analytics and decision services, lenders can now make better credit decisions on people who don't have a credit history, and who have therefore found it hard to obtain credit."

The FactorTrust database of underbanked consumer loan performance uses best-in-class third-party data sources and contains more than 100 million distinct transaction records covering all phases of the consumer credit lifecycle, updated in real-time.

"The demand for alternative financial services continues to grow as consumers look for instant, efficient and secure products that they haven't been able to get from traditional lenders," said Greg Rable, CEO for FactorTrust. "I am excited that this partnership will provide an opportunity to underbanked-focused lenders to offer more product choices to these consumers by having a broader view of credit behavior. Lenders will be able to offer more products, more tailored to their consumers."