Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors. In July 2025, a pivotal change came to the mortgage industry, when the Federal Housing Finance Agency officially approved the use of VantageScore 4.0 as an alternative to Classic FICO for mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. VantageScore claims that Classic FICO is […]
FICO isn’t the problem. A premature two-score system Is Read More »
The Mortgage Bankers Association announced Wednesday that its Residential Board of Governors has passed a resolution calling for two influential government-sponsored enterprises to end their requirements for tri-merged credit reports. The move follows FHFA’s decision to allow score competition without changing tri-merge rules, and MBA’s earlier plan to explore the viability of using a single
MBA urges GSEs to end costly tri-merge credit reports Read More »
The opinions published in National Mortgage News (“Credit Scores Are Not the Issue” by Christopher Whalen; “Pulte’s hands credit bureaus an unfair edge” by Chi Chi Wu), are incorrect and misleading. Contrary to the views expressed in those pieces, competition and modernization in the mortgage credit scoring system are significantly enhanced by VantageScore being allowed to compete by the FHFA.
Credit score competition reduces mortgage market risk Read More »
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are set to accept newer credit scores that incorporate nontraditional data, a long-anticipated move that could expand access to home loans — but not without raising new questions and costs. That was the conclusion some experts like James Bennison, former executive vice president and head of alternative markets at Arch
Score modernization taking shape but ROI tough to quantify Read More »
Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently roiled the mortgage market with a post on X, writing “Fannie [Mae] and Freddie [Mac] will ALLOW lenders to use Vantage 4.0 Score with no current requirement to build new infrastructure (stays Tri Merge).” Not only is it highly unorthodox to be making huge policy decisions
Pulte’s tweet hands credit bureau an unfair edge Read More »
Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors. Bill Pulte, the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), announced on July 8, 2025, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would accept Vantagescore 4.0 credit scores for mortgage underwriting. This decision was communicated via Pulte’s social media account on X
Credit scores are not the issue Read More »
Even if conforming mortgage lenders were ready to adopt VantageScore 4.0 tomorrow, several industry players warn that infrastructure and policy alignment are still lacking — and that the road to implementation could be longer and bumpier than it seems. For example, they need to be certain the private mortgage insurers are capable of providing coverage
FHFA’s Vantagescore move changes math on mortgage insurance Read More »
The FHFA’s nod to VantageScore 4.0 — and silence on FICO’s rival 10T model in a recent X post — has reignited a bitter fight over the future of mortgage credit scoring. A B of A Global Research report dated July 11 on the agency RMBS market pointed to the imprecise language in the post
FICO challenges FHFA’s VantageScore decision Read More »
The conservator and regulator of two influential government-related mortgage investors has announced a credit score other than FICO’s “classic” metric can be used when submitting loans to them. Effective immediately, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow lenders to use VantageScore 4.0, Bill Pulte said in an X post referencing one of two advanced credit
Fannie, Freddie add VantageScore, keep tri-merge Read More »
Bill Pulte, the head of an oversight agency for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is planning “a full scale review” of the credit bureaus. The director of the entity formerly known as the Federal Housing Finance Agency posted the statement on X Friday afternoon, and subsequently indicated on early Monday he also wants
Pulte plans ‘full scale review” of credit bureaus Read More »