FICO Scores the Credit File. Prestatech Scores the Bank Account.
FICO is the most widely used credit scoring model in the world, but it only sees what credit bureaus report. It cannot see income, expenses, liquidity, or real-time cash flow. Prestatech's pSCORE analyses live bank transaction data to deliver a 0–100 risk score that captures what FICO structurally cannot, for any borrower, including the 25+ million consumers FICO can't score at all.
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The industry-standard scoring model and the financial reality it doesn't measure
FICO has been the cornerstone of credit decisioning since 1989. Its scores range from 300 to 850 and are used by 90% of top US lenders. The model evaluates five factors from credit bureau data: payment history (35%), amounts owed (30%), length of credit history (15%), new credit (10%), and credit mix (10%). FICO scores are calculated on top of data held by Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, FICO does not collect data itself.
But FICO can only score what bureaus report. It holds no transaction data, no income information, no expense signals, and no real-time liquidity indicators. An estimated 25 million US adults are credit invisible with no bureau file at all and another 28 million have files too thin for FICO to generate a reliable score. Globally, the credit invisible population is far larger. Even for consumers FICO can score, the model reflects how they managed debt in the past, not whether their income is stable today or their account balance can absorb a new repayment.
pSCORE approaches credit risk from the opposite direction. Instead of scoring reported debt history, it analyses bank transaction data, income patterns, spending behaviour, balance trends, and liquidity signals, to produce a 0–100 score that supplements FICO with the financial dimensions bureau data structurally cannot capture.
FICO has recognised the limits of bureau-only scoring. Its Score XD uses alternative data to reach thin-file consumers, and the new FICO Score 10 T incorporates trended data to capture balance trajectories over 24 months. In 2025, FICO announced BNPL-inclusive scores. But these innovations still operate within the bureau data ecosystem, they expand what bureau data includes, not where the data comes from. Cash flow scoring works from a fundamentally different source: the borrower's bank account. That distinction determines what the score can see.
Book demoWHY LENDERS ADD PSCORE ALONGSIDE FICO
Supplement FICO. Score where FICO can't.
pSCORE is designed to work alongside FICO — not compete with it. Use it as an additional scorecard variable for applicants FICO already scores, as a second-look trigger for borderline FICO decisions, or as the primary score for the millions of consumers and SMEs that FICO cannot score at all. For thin-file applicants, credit invisibles, gig workers, and new-to-country borrowers, pSCORE provides a risk signal where FICO returns nothing.
Score in seconds. Decide in real time.
Transaction histories are processed instantly — even when spanning multiple institutions and months of data. The score and its dimensional breakdown are returned via API in real time, keeping your loan origination system moving without a manual scoring bottleneck.
Approve more. Default less.
Banks using Prestatech's scoring have approved 10–35% more applicants without increasing portfolio risk, because transaction-level scoring identifies creditworthy borrowers that static bureau models miss. At the same time, predictive risk signals in the liquidity and stability dimensions flag deteriorating accounts before they default, reducing portfolio losses by 15–40%.
Explainable scores. Auditable methodology.
Every pSCORE is backed by the three dimensional sub-scores and the specific transaction patterns that drove them. Your risk team can inspect exactly why a borrower scored 72 versus 58 — meeting regulatory expectations around explainability and fair lending, including GDPR Article 22 requirements for automated decision-making transparency and ECOA/FCRA requirements in the US market.