Why are the FICO score algorithms secret?

[Anonymous]

All this secrecy around how FICO is actually calculated is BS! These algorithms should be made public!!

[Slabenstein]

I believe the legal reason is that they are "trade secrets" (which enjoy legal protections similar to copyright for creative works), and the business reason is that FICO charges the bureaus for scores generated by their proprietary algorithms.  If they made the algorithms publically available, they wouldn't be able to do that.  Whether having numbers that are so important to our lives be generated by algorithms we can't review is the best state of affairs for our society, I don't know.  It's at least the case that the broad, general information that FICO gives about what helps and hurts scores seems to be true.

[simplynoir]

Hi and welcome to the forums, @Anonymous

It's because they're using proprietary algorithms which means they don't have to disclose that information except to those that sign NDAs usually. It's a business model similar (if not the same) as intellectual property rights. You can do what you like since it's yours. Why banks have their own algorithms which they use when using FICO's information when pulls are generated, and like before they don't have to disclose as well. They interpret the data as they see fit and make decisions based off this

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

All this secrecy around how FICO is actually calculated is BS! These algorithms should be made public!!

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Historically it was much more secretive than it is now. We have actually made positive strides forward in transparency.

These sites, where consumers can get information about their scores and scoring factors are a fairly recent development.

And recently we had a whole big question and answer session where FICO insiders involved in creating the FICO policies and formulas actually answered some of our questions: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/We-re-Tom-Quinn-amp-Tommy-Lee-FICO-Score-Experts-Ask-us-anything/td-p/6130984

[designated_knitter]

I don't mind them being secret as much as I object to having to pay to find out what my own scores are.

[SOGGIE]

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@designated_knitter wrote:

I don't mind them being secret as much as I object to having to pay to find out what my own scores are.

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☝️100% agree