More than 70 lenders have signed up to use FICO 10T, the new credit scoring model from Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO).

Among the latest lenders to join the program are Fairway Home Mortgage, InterLinc Mortgage Services, Lower Mortgage, NFM Lending, Novus Home Mortgage, Plaza Home Mortgage and Village Capital & Investment.

According to FICO, lenders participating in its FICO Score 10T free access program represent $586 billion in annual originations and $1.865 trillion in servicing portfolios. The program allows participating lenders to compare FICO Score 10T to Classic FICO, which has long been the standard credit scoring model for the mortgage industry.

Erin Dee, chief operating officer at InterLinc Mortgage Services, told Scotsman Guide that her company “is excited to be at the forefront of exploring the new credit models and how we can better understand risk as a result.”

Dee said InterLinc plans to evaluate FICO 10T alongside the Classic FICO model over the coming months because “these are the beginning stages of this journey.”

“If the new models can truly provide greater insight into evaluating the credit risk of consumers, and help open homeownership up to more borrowers, this will be a big positive for all of us,” she added. “We have a lot of analysis to do, so time will tell.”

In a FICO press release, Eric Egenhoefer, president and CEO of Novus Home Mortgage, said, “As we work to make homeownership more accessible for more families, we’re proud to adopt FICO Score 10T and its predictive credit scoring model that provides a more accurate view of credit risk.”

Egenhoefer added: “We are excited to use this innovative technology that aligns so well with our ultimate goal of helping more families into homes of their own.”

While FICO 10T hasn’t been fully approved for loans eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), have signaled that future adoption is in the pipeline.

On July 1, Fannie and Freddie published historical FICO 10T data in a procedural step for future acceptance of the modernized FICO score for GSE-eligible loans.

In April, the FHFA greenlighted VantageScore 4.0 — a competing model jointly owned by the three major credit bureaus — for Fannie and Freddie loans as part of a limited deployment with approved lenders. Major lenders including United Wholesale Mortgage and Newrez later confirmed they were part of the VantageScore rollout.