The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is “doing a full scale review of all credit bureaus,” according to a social media post on Friday by FHFA Director Bill Pulte.
Pulte’s comment was in response to an X user who posted: “All of the credit bureaus need to be abolished. They have way too much power. If a company says we owe them something they take their word for it and we have virtually no remedy.”
The FHFA director did not elaborate on what the review entails.
Earlier in the day, Pulte responded to a separate X user who asked if he had any updates on his previously announced intention to review the rising costs of credit pulls by Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), creator of the eponymous score used during the mortgage approval process as a measure of consumer credit risk.
“My view on FICO is the same, but we will see, and stay tuned!” Pulte wrote.
FICO uses data from the three major credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — to create a score used in the determination of a borrower’s creditworthiness.
In May, Pulte wrote on X that he is “not happy with FICO,” and that the FHFA may take some form of action in response to FICO price hikes.
In a recent interview with Scotsman Guide, Brendan McKay, co-founder and chief advocacy officer of the Broker Action Coalition, said he was happy to see that Pulte is looking into FICO’s cost increases. McKay added that he’d like to see Pulte do the same with the credit bureaus.
It now appears Pulte is doing just that.
