Weekly Real Estate News
Summary
FHFA is reportedly preparing to direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to require credit data from two national credit bureaus instead of three. Bloomberg Law says the directive could be announced as soon as Oct. 12; FHFA has not formally announced the change.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is preparing to direct Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to require mortgage lenders to pull credit data from two of the three national credit bureaus instead of all three, according to a person familiar with the plans cited by Bloomberg Law.
The change has not been formally announced by FHFA. Bloomberg Law reported Thursday evening that the directive is expected within weeks and could be announced by FHFA Director Bill Pulte as soon as Oct. 12, when he is scheduled to speak at a mortgage industry conference in Chicago.
If implemented as reported, the move would revive a major piece of a credit-reporting overhaul that FHFA postponed last year and would alter a basic cost and operational requirement for lenders selling conventional loans to the government-sponsored enterprises.
Mortgage lenders currently rely on merged credit data from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion for GSE loans. A bi-merge system would reduce that requirement to two national consumer reporting agencies.
FHFA has considered bi-merge for years
The concept is not new. FHFA began a public engagement process in 2023 around moving from three credit reports to two as part of a broader overhaul of the Enterprises’ credit-score requirements.
In February 2024, FHFA said bi-merge would be implemented alongside new credit-score model requirements, then targeted for the fourth quarter of 2025. In January 2025, FHFA and the Enterprises postponed that timetable to a date to be determined after industry feedback.
FHFA later adopted an interim approach allowing lenders to use either VantageScore 4.0 or Classic FICO while retaining tri-merge credit reporting. FHFA’s current credit-score policy page still says the VantageScore transition does not initially change the Enterprises’ existing credit-reporting requirements.
That makes Thursday’s report a significant change in direction if FHFA follows through.
Pulte had already signaled that a change was coming
Pulte publicly put bi-merge back on the table in early September. WRE News reported Sept. 4 that the FHFA director said the agency was “seriously considering bi-merge” as he criticized the cost of mortgage credit reports and the three national credit bureaus.
At the time, Pulte also said FHFA was studying whether lenders could eventually use only one credit report. No formal FHFA announcement accompanied those comments.
Thursday’s report moves the issue beyond Pulte’s public statement of consideration. Bloomberg Law now reports that FHFA is preparing an actual directive to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, although the agency has not published implementation details, a start date or guidance explaining how lenders would select the two bureaus.
Those details will matter. Lenders, credit-report vendors and mortgage technology providers would need to know whether the change is mandatory or optional, how bureau selection would work, what happens when borrower data differ materially between bureaus, and how the requirement interacts with the Enterprises’ expanding use of VantageScore 4.0.
Credit-company shares reacted after hours
The report immediately reached public markets. Fair Isaac shares fell about 7% and TransUnion dropped about 6% in after-hours trading Thursday, according to market reports following the Bloomberg story.
Equifax, Experian and TransUnion dominate the U.S. consumer credit-reporting market. The three bureaus jointly own VantageScore Solutions, whose VantageScore 4.0 model has been gaining access to the GSE mortgage market under FHFA’s recent credit-score changes.
For mortgage lenders, the immediate issue is cost as well as workflow. Pulling one fewer bureau report could reduce credit-report expenses, but the size of any borrower or lender savings will depend on pricing, implementation rules and how credit-report resellers respond. FHFA has not yet published estimates for the reported directive.
The distinction is important: as of Thursday evening, this remains a reported FHFA plan rather than an effective GSE requirement. Fannie Mae’s current guidance says eligible lenders using VantageScore 4.0 obtain scores from each of the three credit bureaus through a three-in-file merged report, while Freddie Mac’s published credit-score initiative continues to describe bi-merge as part of the postponed transition.
WRE News will update the story when FHFA, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac issues formal guidance.
