Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to expand VantageScore 4.0 access to all approved lenders delivering eligible loans under the government-sponsored enterprises’ purview. The move, effective immediately, removes prior restrictions that limited VantageScore usage to a pilot group of 50 lenders.
Classic FICO remains an approved scoring model during this transition phase, but Pulte emphasized the expansion as part of a broader effort to increase competition and reduce costs in mortgage underwriting. In his directive, Pulte cited claims that FICO raised credit score pricing by 1,800 percent since 2020 and described its market position as monopolistic. He also accused Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion of overcharging consumers and characterized their conduct as cartel-like—a reference to the fact that these bureaus jointly own VantageScore.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency clarified that lenders may continue using Classic FICO alongside VantageScore 4.0 during the transition period. The directive does not alter existing credit-reporting requirements, including data gathered from nationwide credit bureaus. VantageScore 4.0 incorporates trended credit information and rental-payment history where available in a borrower’s file, potentially identifying applicants overlooked by older scoring systems while improving default-risk predictions.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development had previously permitted VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T for FHA-insured mortgages, marking the first major adoption of modernized credit-score models in decades under the Credit Score Competition Act signed by President Trump in 2018. As of August 31, VantageScore 4.0 had been used as the sole scoring model for over 9 percent of mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since May 1.
Pulte framed the expansion as a competitive shift that could save the mortgage market nearly $1 billion annually through broader model adoption. The immediate change expands VantageScore’s reach while maintaining Classic FICO as an option, signaling a significant step toward diversifying scoring alternatives in a market previously reliant on a single model for decades.
