Housing finance regulator Bill Pulte has backed out of a planned appearance at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference in Chicago.

A spokesperson for the MBA confirmed the news, saying the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) cited scheduling conflicts.

Pulte, who also serves as board chair of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, had initially been scheduled to appear in person on Monday. It was rescheduled for a virtual appearance Tuesday before word got out Monday evening that he wouldn’t be attending at all.

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The FHFA did not immediately respond to an inquiry regarding the specifics of the cancellation.

Heading into the MBA’s flagship conference, Bloomberg’s Katy O’Donnell reported that Pulte might potentially unveil plans to shift from tri-merge to bi-merge credit reporting requirements for loans delivered to Fannie and Freddie, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.

Bi-merge refers to a credit report that combines data from two of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Pulte’s predecessor as FHFA chief, Sandra Thompson, had previously announced plans to shift to bi-merge, which some industry advocates had maintained would reduce costs passed through to consumers without introducing systemic credit risk.

Those plans were shelved when Thompson stepped down shortly before the Biden administration transitioned to the Trump administration in January 2025. Pulte took office two months later.

Though a bi-merge announcement was far from certain, it would have created an interesting dynamic if revealed on the MBA stage. The association’s president and CEO, Bob Broeksmit, has been the mortgage industry’s most prominent advocate for a single-file credit reporting framework over the past year, which would require data from just one bureau if the initial credit pull exceeds 700.

On Monday, during introductory remarks preceding a warmly received appearance by former President George W. Bush, Broeksmit hinted that a credit reporting transition may be forthcoming. But he didn’t get into specifics, saying the FHFA has “known for years that tri-merge is outdated and unnecessary.”

“The specific reform is still being worked out, but at this point, I am increasingly confident that tri-merge won’t be around for long,” Broeksmit said. “And the sooner it goes away, the better.”