Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept VantageScore 4.0 credit scores from every lender that sells mortgages to the two companies, effective immediately, ending a four-month rollout that had been limited to a small group of approved sellers. Shares of Fair Isaac Corp., whose FICO scores have anchored mortgage underwriting for decades, fell 16% on Friday.
The change matters because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stand behind roughly half of the U.S. mortgage market. Their credit score requirements set the practical standard for what lenders pull, what they pay for it, and which borrowers can be approved at all.
Pulte announced the directive in a series of posts on X on Wednesday evening. “FICO has enjoyed a monopoly. No more,” he wrote, adding that the initial rollout at the two companies had been “incredibly successful, with 50 LENDERS DELIVERING LOANS.” He said that “EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, I’m instructing Fannie and Freddie to approve ALL lenders to use VantageScore,” and asserted that since 2020 Fair Isaac has raised the price of a single credit score by 1,800%.
What VantageScore says the change delivers
VantageScore confirmed the directive in an announcement issued Friday from San Francisco, and used the occasion to publish adoption figures from the limited phase. As of Aug. 31, the company said, VantageScore 4.0 had been the sole credit score used on more than 9% of all mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since May 1.
“The extraordinary pace of VantageScore 4.0 adoption signals a new era for the mortgage industry,” said Silvio Tavares, president and chief executive of VantageScore, in the announcement. “Lenders are rapidly embracing a more modern and predictive credit score that lowers risks, reduces costs and identifies millions more creditworthy borrowers.”
The company’s claims for the model, which are its own and not independently verified by RealtyWire, include that VantageScore 4.0 scores roughly 33 million more U.S. adults than FICO Classic or FICO 10T, among them nearly 5 million additional consumers it describes as mortgage-ready. About 24 million of the newly scoreable group are what the company calls dormant-file consumers β people with credit histories that have gone quiet β and VantageScore says 77% of them score near prime or prime.
VantageScore attributes the difference to data volume. The model was the first tri-bureau scoring system to use trended credit data, which tracks balances and payment patterns over time rather than at a single moment, and the company says it draws on 400% more data than legacy mortgage scores.
On cost, VantageScore pointed to an independent study by Deep Future Analytics estimating that FHFA’s approval of the model for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans saves more than $930 million across the mortgage market in the first year.
One structural detail is worth noting for lenders reading the competitive story: VantageScore is an independent joint venture owned by the three national credit bureaus β Equifax, Experian and TransUnion β the same companies that sell the underlying credit reports.
How the industry got here
The directive is the latest step in a process that began with the Credit Score Competition Act of 2018, which required FHFA to consider alternatives to Classic FICO for loans bought by the two companies.
On April 22, FHFA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced that the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would implement VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T β the first new mortgage credit score models in decades. “We are modernizing credit scoring with more predictive models, helping millions of Americans who responsibly pay rent qualify for mortgages,” Pulte said at the time. HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the move was “a meaningful step toward expanding access to homeownership.”
Rather than switching the whole market at once, the two companies phased it in. Freddie Mac’s credit score models page describes a limited rollout of approved sellers intended to confirm operational readiness before broad availability, with sellers outside that group continuing on Classic FICO. Pulte’s directive collapses that staging.
The underlying data has been building for months. Rental payment history, which VantageScore 4.0 can incorporate, has become a live front in credit access: as RealtyWire reported, insufficient credit history was the single most common reason conventional purchase loans were denied in 2025, edging out debt-to-income ratio. The two companies have also been tightening other parts of the rulebook this year, including retiring the condo “limited review” option in August.
The market reaction
Investors treated the announcement as a direct hit to Fair Isaac’s pricing power. FICO shares closed Friday at $937.69, down 16.2% from Thursday’s close of $1,118.93, after trading as low as $885 during the session β a one-day decline of roughly $181 a share.
What it means
The verified facts are narrow: every seller to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may now deliver loans underwritten with VantageScore 4.0, the limited rollout is over, and the stock market repriced Fair Isaac sharply on the news.
The savings and inclusion figures are attributed claims from VantageScore and from the outside study it pointed to, not established outcomes. Whether roughly 5 million additional consumers actually obtain mortgages depends on lender overlays, investor appetite and pricing β none of which change automatically because a score is permitted.
RealtyWire’s analysis: the immediate, measurable effect is on cost per file rather than on approvals. Lenders now have a second approved score to negotiate against at origination, and score fees are a per-loan cost that has climbed steadily through the current high-rate cycle. Loan officers should expect vendor conversations before they see any change in who qualifies. More on rates, lending and credit policy is collected on our Mortgage page.
What to watch
Three things over the next several weeks: whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac publish selling guide updates formalizing the directive; whether loan origination systems and pricing engines are ready for volume outside the pilot group; and whether Fair Isaac responds on price, which is the variable that would decide how much of the projected market savings is real.
