Interbank, Fiserv, President's Choice Bank and Universal American Win FICO Decision Management Awards

SAO PAULO, Oct. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- FICO (NYSE:FICO), the leading provider of analytics and decision management technology, today announced that Interbank, Fiserv, President's Choice Bank and Universal American have been awarded 2012 FICO Decision Management Awards. These awards honor companies that have achieved outstanding business results through credit risk management, insurance claims management, fraud control and analytic excellence. Winners will be featured in presentations at FICO World 2013 in Miami, April 30-May 2.

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All award nominations underwent a rigorous judging process. Winners were selected by a panel of esteemed industry analysts and journalists: Douglas Blakey, editor, Retail Banker International; Brian McDonough, research manager, Business Analytics Solutions, IDC; Chris O'Brien, technology columnist, San Jose Mercury News; Karen Pauli, research director, CEB TowerGroup; and James Taylor, CEO, Decision Management Solutions.

Credit Risk Award - Interbank
Banco Internacional del Peru (Interbank) received the Credit Risk Management award for its new credit management system, based on FICO software, which has improved the effectiveness, agility and homogeneity of the credit-setting process. By using FICO systems including FICO^® Capstone^® Decision Accelerator, the bank developed a real-time, simpler and customer-centric experience, whereby Interbank can evaluate applicants for many products at the same time using the same documentation and data entry. 

Interbank is able to personalize its credit evaluation processes and offers, and can define pricing strategies according to customer risk, which are applied consistently no matter which channel its clients choose to apply for credit. This process has facilitated a healthy growth of Interbank's credit card market share from 16 percent to 21 percent, making the bank the top issuer in the market. At the same time, Interbank achieved an exceptional decrease in operation costs, including a 75 percent reduction in the number of employees needed to manage credit evaluations.

"The judges were impressed by Interbank's achievements in customer-centric decision management," said Brian McDonough, research manager, Business Analytics Solutions, at industry analyst IDC. "The bank's results demonstrate the power of being able to match the customer's total credit needs at the point of decision."

Fraud Control Award - Fiserv
Fiserv (Nasdaq: FISV) received the Fraud Control Award for the development and implementation of its Risk Office consulting service, which leverages FICO Falcon Fraud Manager to provide customized fraud mitigation services to subscribing financial institutions. In the last five years, almost 1,000 debit, credit, and prepaid card issuers have subscribed to Risk Office^SM, and on average they enjoy an approximate 60 percent reduction in reported fraud basis points, compared to non-subscribing clients.

This is achieved by combining FICO's neural network scoring model with the constant vigilance of specialized risk analysts who review client fraud trends and overall portfolio data to develop custom strategies that help prevent fraudulent transactions. Within the FICO^® Falcon^® Fraud Manager product, Risk Office analysts augment case management plans with real-time transaction decline rules to intelligently prevent fraud as it occurs. Additionally, Fiserv has leveraged the transaction-tagging features in Falcon Fraud Manager to gain instant insight into current fraud trends and adjust rule strategies accordingly for its subscribers.

"Risk Office from Fiserv has seen steady growth and helped our clients reduce their dollar fraud losses by an average of 40 percent," said J.B. Rambaud, general manager of risk, Card Services, Fiserv. "Our analysts take action on a client's behalf and can help them swiftly mitigate risk. They use all of the tools at their disposal, of which FICO Falcon Fraud Manager is a big part, to proactively monitor cases and help clients solve fraud issues quickly and resolutely, minimizing loss."

"The FISERV submission was very comprehensive," said Douglas Blakey, editor of Retail Banker International. "They are different from the other candidates in that they are not a financial services institution themselves, but their excellence in helping more than 1,000 card issuers improve their fraud results made them a winner."

Analytic Excellence Award – President's Choice Bank
President's Choice Bank received the Analytic Excellence Award for its use of FICO decision optimization software and FICO consulting to develop a custom credit line management strategy, implemented in FICO^® TRIAD^® Customer Manager. This solution enabled PCB to adapt to new Canadian regulations, which require banks to obtain express consent from a cardholder prior to granting a limit increase.

PCB partnered with FICO to develop an optimized credit line increase strategy that met this requirement while providing portfolio growth and staying within the bank's risk appetite. PCB reported a 400 percent lift in qualifying volumes (offers) and responses using the optimization-derived credit line increase strategy vs. the former strategy, as well as an increase of $750+ in sales, $200+ in receivables and $12+ in profit per targeted account.

"President's Choice Bank is doing everything right in its approach to decision management," said James Taylor, CEO of Decision Management Solutions and author of Decision Management Systems: A Practical Guide to Using Business Rules and Predictive Analytics. "They're using champion / challenger testing, they're changing their call center processes, they're blending optimization with rules and analytics. This is a textbook case of how to use analytics to improve results."

Insurance Claims Management Award – Universal American
Universal American won the Insurance Claims Management Award for its use of FICO® Insurance Fraud Manager to detect fraud both before and after claims adjudication. By integrating IFM with its claims platform, Facets, Universal American can deny fraudulent claims up front prior to payment. In addition to the pre-payment function, UAM also utilizes the post-payment capabilities of IFM, which enable the identification of fraud, waste and abuses by providers.

Within 18 months of implementation, Universal American saved more than $6 million in pre-payment fraud losses alone, attaining an ROI of over 9:1. In 2011, the insurer reconstructed its Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and Compliance Department to comply with all federal and state regulations, and the FICO solution was a big part of this reconstruction. Universal American has also participated as a beta partner for FICO's new predictive model that scores facilities, and has found cases with potential overpayments totaling several hundred thousand dollars.

"Cutting claims payments off is a very forward-looking way to handle fraud, waste and abuse, as the industry standard is to chase payments afterwards," said Karen Pauli, research director, CEB TowerGroup. "Universal American's SIU went from pay-and-chase with a few investigators to reorganizing the claims department to meet regulations and adding value with nurses, coders, and prepayment specialists. They are clearly ahead of the pack in their approach to insurance fraud."

"We are delighted to be honored by FICO," said James Cooper, Special Investigative Unit manager for Universal American Corp. "We are among the first Medicare Advantage plans to have a fraud, waste and abuse pre-payment program of this kind. This is the way of the future."

"Predictive analytics and decision management can have a transformative effect on business results, as these award-winners clearly show," said Dr. Andrew Jennings, chief analytics officer at FICO. "These forward-thinking companies are defining best practices for the entire industry. We congratulate the winners who distinguished themselves from among many worthy nominees."

SOURCE FICO