Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte on September 3, 2026 ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to immediately approve VantageScore 4.0 for use by all US lenders, ending FICO's three-decade grip on the mortgage credit scoring market. The announcement, made on X (formerly Twitter), came after an initial pilot with 50 approved lenders had already captured 9 percent of GSE securitizations since May. FICO shares plunged 16.68 percent on September 5, while Equifax and Experian dropped 6.37 and 5.93 percent respectively.
FICO has dominated mortgage credit scoring for three decades. Pulte accused the company of raising prices 1,800 percent since 2020 and labeled the three credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — a "cartel" that has overcharged American consumers for too long. VantageScore 4.0, developed using machine learning techniques, can evaluate consumers with limited credit histories that traditional models often overlook. The initial pilot, launched in April 2026 with a limited number of approved lenders, demonstrated that the model could function at scale in the US mortgage market.
Beyond opening VantageScore to all lenders, Pulte announced that the FHFA is "seriously considering" a shift to a bi-merge model, which would reduce credit reports from three bureaus to two, generating significant cost savings for consumers. The Mortgage Bankers Association has pushed for an even more aggressive single-report model for borrowers with strong credit profiles above 700. The current tri-merge mandate — requiring combined reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — generates substantial costs for borrowers that have remained unchanged for decades. A shift to bi-merge or single-report would directly hit the revenues of the three bureaus, which derive a significant portion of their income from mortgage credit report fees.