One score with explicit minimum requirements at the higher levels.
ICM2
I Control My MoneyControl Score Standard
A clear standard for demonstrated money control.
The ICM² Control Score is a 0–100 measure of how well a member's observed income, spending, obligations, reserves and debt appear to be under control.
It is not a credit score and it is not a wealth score.The standard is designed to describe financial control using defined, explainable rules — not income level, net worth, character or a prediction of loan repayment.
Illustrative credential · no real member dataDefined financial rules calculate the score. AI does not assign the number.
Confidence in the completeness of the available financial picture is disclosed separately.
Model version, currentness and verification status remain visible.
What the score represents
Control is measured relative to the member's own financial life.
What it measures
Whether normal spending fits within normal income, whether meaningful reserves exist, whether important obligations appear consistent, whether debt is being handled, and whether recent cash-flow friction is present.
What it does not measure
Salary level, social status, net worth, intelligence, personal character or creditworthiness. A lower-income member with strong financial control can score higher than a much higher-income member whose financial system is under pressure.
Control Score v1.0 methodology
100 points. Five universal components.
The public standard states what is measured, the weight of each component and the conditions required to reach higher Control Levels.
WeightComponentPurposeEvidence
40Income vs. Spending
Measures whether normal spending fits within normal recurring income.
Normalized recurring income, normalized spending, monthly margin and margin rate.
25Safety Money
Measures the amount of accessible protection relative to the member's actual expenses.
Starter protection, essential-expense coverage and full normal-expense coverage.
15Bills & Obligations
Measures whether important recurring commitments appear to be handled consistently.
Expected recurring obligations, observed payment patterns and confidence rules.
10Debt Control
Measures whether observed debt obligations are being handled rather than simply penalizing the existence of debt.
Required-payment consistency, debt direction and non-housing debt pressure.
10Money Friction
Measures recent signs that cash flow may be breaking down.
Overdrafts, NSF events, returned payments and similar high-confidence cash-flow friction.
Control Gates
High scores require demonstrated minimum conditions.
Weighted points cannot compensate for a core weakness that conflicts with the meaning of a higher Control Level.
70+
In Control
Normal spending must be below normal income, and starter financial protection must be established.
80+
Protected
At least one month of essential expenses must be protected and important obligations must be handled consistently.
90+
Strong Control
At least three months of full normal expenses must be protected, with strong obligation consistency and no recent serious cash-flow-friction pattern.
Coverage & verification
Precision is not presented without context.
A score is accompanied by evidence-quality signals so a viewer can understand how much confidence to place in the credential.
Coverage Confidence
ICM² looks for known account coverage, unexplained external transfers, unmatched credit-card payments, debt gaps, income patterns, account freshness and member attestation.
High Coverage means no material gaps were found in the financial activity available to ICM². It does not guarantee that no undisclosed accounts exist.Verification status
Verified status requires sufficient usable history, High Coverage Confidence, current data, sufficiently understood income and resolution of material unexplained financial activity.
Higher-assurance identity binding is part of the credential roadmap and will be clearly distinguished from standard verification.Credential currentness
A current score is date-bound. The credential shows when it was verified and, where applicable, the short validity window for the downloadable or physical card.
Historical Control Streaks describe past consistency; they do not extend the current score's validity.Model governance
Every point should be explainable and reproducible.
The standard is being built with the controls expected of a credential that may eventually be reviewed by institutions, auditors and regulators.
Deterministic scoring
AI may help classify transactions and identify patterns, but it does not decide the final score.
Versioned methodology
Every score remains tied to the model version that produced it. Historical scores are not silently rewritten.
Reasoned outputs
Each component can be traced to the underlying financial facts and the scoring rule that converted them into points.
Coverage disclosed
The score is presented with Coverage Confidence so incomplete or unexplained financial activity is not hidden behind a precise-looking number.
Correction path
The architecture is designed so disputed classifications or incorrect inputs can be corrected and the score recalculated with an audit trail.
Privacy by design
Public credentials expose verification facts, not salary, merchant-level activity, bank credentials, account numbers or raw transaction histories.
For financial institutions
Designed as a consumer-controlled credential, with an institutional path.
The public credential is intentionally limited. It is designed to establish authenticity and context without exposing the member's private transaction history.
Public credential
What a member can share
- Current Control Score and Control Level
- Verification status and verified date
- Coverage Confidence
- Control Streak, when the member chooses to display it
- Model version and verification credential ID
- Live QR or verification link
Institutional roadmap
What professional verification can add
- Consumer-authorized direct verification rather than screenshots
- Identity-bound credentials for higher-assurance use
- Freshness, authenticity and credential-status checks
- Reason codes and score-component context
- Auditable consent and access records
- API and monitoring capabilities under an institutional agreement
Important boundary
The ICM² Control Score is currently defined as a measure of demonstrated personal money control. It is not presented as a credit score, underwriting recommendation or prediction of repayment. Any future use in regulated eligibility decisions would require separate validation, compliance architecture and institutional governance.
Institutional evaluation framework
What an institution should be able to review.
Methodology specificationWeights, formulas, gates, missing-data rules and known limitations.
Model versioningChange history and the ability to reproduce historical score calculations.
Data lineageTraceability of relevant inputs to connected data, user corrections and calculated values.
Validation & monitoringTest households, edge cases, performance monitoring and fairness testing as the model matures.
Security & privacyData minimization, access controls, credential revocation, audit logging and secure verification flows.
Dispute & correctionA defined process for correcting inaccurate inputs and recalculating the score without erasing audit history.
I Control My Money
A financial-control credential should be simple to understand and difficult to misrepresent.
That is the standard we are building: transparent scoring, visible coverage, current verification, versioned methodology and consumer-controlled sharing.