Bill Pulte is “not happy with FICO.”
The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) made those feelings known in a social media post Tuesday on X. Pulte was responding to a post by a Florida-based mortgage broker about the rising costs of credit pulls by Fair Isaac Corp., creator of the FICO score, a measure of consumer credit risk.
“We should be making some decisions on all related items in next 1-3 weeks,” Pulte wrote in the response to the X post, which suggested that government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the FHFA regulates, should allow competition from credit reporting models other than FICO.
A few hours later, Pulte wrote that “American consumers must be respected” in reply to a post from another mortgage broker, which opined that it is “time to end the FICO monopoly.”
In October 2022, the FHFA announced plans to shift from the Classic FICO “tri-merge” credit score model — which requires lenders to obtain three credit reports for each borrower on a loan — to a new “bi-merge” model. Under the new system, lenders who sell loans to Fannie or Freddie will be required to pull FICO 10T and VantageScore 4.0 reports from two different credit bureaus.
The bi-merge transition was originally set to be implemented by Fannie and Freddie during the fourth quarter of 2025. However, that date was pushed back to a “to-be-determined date,” according to an announcement in January by Freddie Mac.
Pulte has had FICO and credit report costs on his mind frequently over the past week.
On May 21, Pulte wrote on X that he was “extremely disappointed” to hear about FICO cost increases. The following day, he asked, “Why do some credit reports cost double (Biden’s term) from what they did during President Trump’s first term?”
In November 2024, FICO notified credit bureaus that it had increased its wholesale royalty for credit scores related to mortgage originations from $3.50 to $4.95 per score.
Reducing credit report costs was among the action items Jim Nabors, president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB), proposed in a letter sent to Pulte on April 22.
“Credit reporting expenses have surged in recent years, with some tri-merge credit reports now costing lenders over $100 per applicant — more than double what they were just a few years ago,” Nabors wrote. “These unchecked increases often lack clear justification, occur without regulatory oversight and ultimately present a growing burden on both lenders and consumers.”
Adding that the “concentration of power among a few dominant credit reporting agencies has further exacerbated the issue,” the NAMB president urged the FHFA to “collaborate with stakeholders across the lending and credit reporting sectors to ensure a fair, transparent and competitive system.”
