An uptick in missed payments, slightly elevated consumer debt levels, and an increased rate in consumers obtaining new credit contributed to the leveling off of the average FICO® Score

New analysis from FICO (NYSE: FICO), a leading analytics software firm, shows that the national average FICO® Score currently sits at 716, the same as it was a year ago.

FICO® Scores are dynamic and evolve as changes in consumer behavior are reflected in the underlying credit bureau data housed and managed by the three primary U.S. consumer reporting agencies (CRAs). Each year, FICO provides insight into the national average FICO Score to help ensure that consumers and lenders have a benchmark measure of the current credit health standing. 2022 marks the first time the average FICO Score did not increase in recent years, likely driven in part by the significant uptick in average FICO Score that was observed over the first 12 months of the pandemic.

The leveling off of the average FICO® Score this year has been accompanied by modest degradation in key metrics considered by the Score: a small uptick in missed payments, slightly elevated consumer debt levels, and an increased rate in consumers obtaining new credit.

“Our annual announcement of the national average FICO Score stands as an important marker of the current financial health of U.S. consumers,” said Sally Taylor, vice president of Scores at FICO. “We will continue to monitor emerging credit risk trends to determine how consumers are adapting to the current state of inflation and the economy more generally.”

As the independent standard in credit scoring, FICO® Scores are the leading credit scores used extensively across the lending ecosystem ranging from originations, underwriting and account management to collections and asset-backed securitization.

For more information on the average U.S. FICO® Score, please visit the FICO blog.

About FICO

FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail, transportation and supply chain, and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 120 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of airplanes and rental cars are in the right place at the right time.

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