SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Highlights:

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• FICO’s Score A Better Fundamentals program empowers middle-and-high-school-aged students with financial literacy and knowledge to make informed credit decisions that last a lifetime.
• FICO is partnering with Chelsea Football Club and U.S. Soccer Foundation to showcase Score A Better Future Fundamentals during every stop of Chelsea’s summer tour and bring students to the matches.
• This initiative is part of FICO’s commitment to financial inclusion through credit education.

As an extension of its successful, nation-wide Score A Better Future (SABF) financial education program, global analytics software firm FICO (NYSE: FICO) will be showcasing Score A Better Future Fundamentals (Fundamentals), a credit education program designed for middle-and-high-school-aged students, through a series of workshops this summer for teenage soccer fans. FICO’s commitment to financial inclusion through credit education enables students, adults, and communities across the U.S. to improve financial literacy and encourages Americans to achieve financial independence.

In collaboration with the U.S. Soccer Foundation and FICO’s partnership with globally renowned soccer team, Chelsea Football Club (FC), the Fundamentals workshops will be taught by a FICO credit education professional in all five cities of Chelsea FC’s pre-season U.S. tour. The U.S. Soccer Foundation will work with local partners to bring teenagers from traditionally underserved communities to these workshops. The students will also have an opportunity to attend the Chelsea FC game taking place in their city.

The Financial Literacy Imperative

FICO’s Fundamentals initiative comes as more than half of U.S. teens report they feel unprepared to finance the life they hope to have in adulthood, according to the . An April report from the National Financial Educators Council reports that financial illiteracy is now ’; estimating the lack of financial knowledge costs the average American $1,819 in annual personal finance errors — that’s a total of over $436 billion per year when scaled up for all 240 million American adults. With the need evident for schools to adopt a financial literacy curriculum, 22 states in the U.S. are now requiring financial literacy courses for high schoolers before graduation – with more to come on the horizon.

FICO designed the Fundamentals curriculum to provide middle-and-high-school-aged students with the information they need to make informed credit decisions that last a lifetime. Fundamentals is an extension of , a program launched in 2018 that brings together the combined support of FICO, legislators, consumer advocates, and non-profits to empower adult consumers to improve their understanding of their credit and overall financial health. 83% of SABF attendees said the events were very useful for helping them better understand how to achieve their financial goals.

The summer Fundamentals workshops offer a preview of the more in-depth financial education curriculum that is available to be adopted and taught in schools nationwide. The workshops will teach students about credit and provide a pamphlet of information to help prepare them to make educated credit decisions. The broader curriculum is designed for teachers to educate middle-and-high-school-aged students on the essential credit knowledge needed to begin their financial journeys with confidence.

“Financial literacy is vital to help prepare teenagers to navigate a complex financial landscape and become financially savvy adults,” says Nikhil Behl, Chief Marketing Officer at FICO. “FICO has always been committed to driving financial literacy; it’s the bedrock of financial empowerment, which leads to more prosperous communities. We were encouraged by the interest in our Score A Better Future program from attendees and hope Fundamentals educate students to build a strong financial foundation for their bright futures ahead.”

With a united goal to empower and educate kids and young adults, Chelsea FC will work with FICO and the U.S. Soccer Foundation to provide a game day ticket to students who attend the Fundamental workshops in one of these locations:

• Chelsea vs Wrexham – Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill – July 19, 2023
• Chelsea vs Brighton – Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia – July 22, 2023
• Chelsea vs Newcastle United – Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta – July 26, 2023
• Chelsea vs Fulham – FedEx Field, Landover – July 30, 2023
• Chelsea vs Borussia Dortmund – Soldier Field, Chicago – August 2, 2023

Score A Better Future Fundamentals Helps to Bridge the Financial Literacy Gap

Used by 90% of the top U.S. lenders, FICO® Scores help millions of people gain access to the credit they need to do things like get an education and make major purchases. Fundamentals helps empower students with financial literacy and the knowledge to achieve their financial goals.

Educators at all accredited middle and high schools can receive the Fundamentals curriculum and supporting materials through the Fundamentals website, which will also provide the background knowledge and understanding for teachers to successfully educate students while strengthening their own understanding of credit. To learn more about Fundamentals visit .

About U.S. Soccer Foundation

The U.S. Soccer Foundation’s programs are the national model for sports-based youth development in underserved communities. Since its founding in 1994, the Foundation has established programs proven to help children embrace an active and healthy lifestyle while nurturing their personal growth beyond sports. Its cost-effective, high-impact initiatives offer safe environments where kids and communities thrive. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Soccer Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) organization.

About Chelsea Football Club

Chelsea Football Club is one of the top football clubs globally. Founded in 1905, Chelsea is London’s most central football club, based at the iconic 40,000-capacity Stamford Bridge stadium. Nicknamed ‘The Blues’, the club lifted the Champions League for the first time in 2012 and has also won the Premier League five times, the FA Cup eight times, the Football League Cup five times, the UEFA Europa League twice, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup twice, the UEFA Super Cup twice and the Football League Championship once, in 1955.

The 2021 Champions League and Super Cup triumphs ensured Chelsea became the first club to win all four major UEFA club competitions twice following our earlier successes in those two competitions as well as the Europa League and Cup Winners’ Cup.

The Chelsea FC Women’s team has enjoyed a huge amount of success and completed ‘the Double’ in 2022 by winning the FA Women’s Super League for the fifth time and the Women’s FA Cup for fourth time. We have also captured the FA Women’s League Cup twice as well as reaching the UEFA Women’s Champions League final in 2021.

In addition to possessing some of the world’s most recognisable players, Chelsea has also invested in our future with a state-of-the-art Academy and training centre in Cobham, Surrey. Since its opening in 2008, the club has won seven FA Youth Cups, back-to-back UEFA Youth League titles in 2015 and 2016, and the U23 and U18 Premier League national championships most recently in 2019/20 and 2017/18 respectively.

The Chelsea Foundation boasts one of the most extensive community initiatives in sport, helping to improve the lives of children and young people all over the world.

About FICO

FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in nearly 120 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO® Score, used by 90% of top US lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the US and other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency. Learn more at .

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