FICO Scores are designed to predict credit risk independent of the economy. The FICO Resilience Index is not designed to measure consumers’ current credit risk, but rather to predict consumers’ resilience in the event of an economic downturn, including either a national recession or a regional downturn.
Lenders will likely use the FICO Resilience Index in combination with FICO Scores and other information. Lenders can use this to help identify credit risk for people within a FICO Score range (680-700, for example) in the face of an economic downturn. Put another way in this example, the FICO Resilience Index answers the question, “Which consumers with FICO Scores between 680 and 700 may be more likely to be considered resilient in the event of an economic downturn?