With some nine million cardholders, Hyundai is the first Korean issuer to use transaction-based analytics to make accurate and timely customer management decisions.

FICO Transaction Scores are based on a customer's card usage patterns and updated with every transaction authorisation, yielding a more precise and current assessment of customer risk and purchase behaviour that can be used to target cardholder decisions. Hyundai also plans to use FICO Transaction Scores to match credit offers and rewards to a customer's needs, improving response rates and increasing customer satisfaction.

"Our goal is to grow our business by retaining the best customers, rewarding them for their loyalty and tailoring our products to them," said Byung Hee Kim, Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of Hyundai Card. "We see FICO Transaction Scores as an effective analytic solution for striking the right balance between risk management and marketing."

FICO is building transaction-based risk, attrition and marketing models for Hyundai. Attrition models will provide early indicators of a cardholder's risk of switching cards based on changes in purchasing or usage behaviour. Hyundai can then make more targeted offers designed to retain key customers. Transaction data will also help identify cardholders who will be most interested in Hyundai's specially priced "card loan" for large purchases, and other credit products.

Hyundai is running the FICO® Transaction Score models on the FICOTM Falcon® Fraud Manager 6 scoring engine. This is the latest version of the Falcon platform for analysing transaction data, which is used to protect more than 2 billion cards worldwide from fraud. Using this analytic platform will give Hyundai greater flexibility to adopt additional transaction-based models in the future.

"Growth in the card business today is a matter of strengthening risk controls on the one hand and capturing a larger share of wallet on the other," said David Lightfoot, FICO vice president of product management. "The selection of FICO Transaction Scores gives Hyundai the increased analytic power to do both more effectively."

Seoul-based Hyundai Card Co. Ltd. is a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and GE Capital.