It offers outsourcing services to clients interested in developing credit scoring systems as well as selling software for a client to use in-house.

FORBES: Predicting the Path Out of Poverty: Microfinance & Credit Risk Analysis

Unlike credit scoring systems (like Fico) that can't see the layer of activity below credit card and loan payments, Fiserv tracks consumer accounts, debit card payments and online bill-pay habits.

FORBES: Global 2000

Doctors use the scoring systems to single out patients who could benefit from counseling about lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and quitting smoking, or from preventive interventions such as low-dose aspirin and cholesterol drugs, says Yul Ejnes, the chairman of the American College of Physicians board of regents.

WSJ: Seeking Clues to Heart Risk in a Patient's Family Tree

The banks have hired western consultants to teach them about risk-management systems, credit-scoring and tackling bad loans.

ECONOMIST: Casino capital

It is interesting to note that the highest scoring countries, Finland and Korea, are also among the highest achieving systems in PISA 2009.

UNESCO: Article on assesment

Its latest systems are designed to foil prompting by taking into account the context of high-scoring phrases.

ECONOMIST: Monitor