Austria-based RBI, one of the largest banking groups in Central and Eastern Europe, tested the FICO® Economic Impact Service on personal loans in Eastern Europe. The FICO Economic Impact Service allowed RBI to overlay macro-economic information on top of their traditional credit scoring system, adjusting their risk scores based upon recent and projected economic conditions and thereby improving profit per account.

"In a difficult economy, innovation is the key to raising our performance," said Zsolt Jaczko, vice president and head of Methodology and Validation at RBI. "FICO has given us a better way to adjust our credit risk strategies in response to changing economic conditions. Each market we serve faces different economic prospects, and calibrating risk strategies for each market will help us grow in good and bad economic periods."

"Raiffeisen Bank International has shown the kind of analytic leadership that characterizes the champions in today's banking market," said Mike Gordon, vice president and managing director for FICO in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "The global financial crisis showed conclusively that the past may not be the best indicator of the future. The FICO® Economic Impact Service is a 'stress test' of consumer credit risk at the borrower level, and Raiffeisen Bank International is using this breakthrough in credit scoring technology to do proactive customer management and fuel ambitious growth plans."

The FICO® Economic Impact Service is a patent-pending analytic service that helps lenders adjust their use of risk scores based on economic projections and lender-defined scenarios. The service examines up to 150 different economic indicators, then scientifically calibrates credit risk estimates to expected market conditions, at the account level. With the ability to build on both internally derived score models and standard credit scores, the FICO Economic Impact Service provides lenders with unprecedented insight into the changing nature of risk under different economic conditions.