A few posts on X from Bill Pulte about the price of consumer credit scores were enough to jolt the market. Fair Isaac Corp. fell as much as 21% on Friday, the biggest one day fall since March 2020, and touched its lowest level since late April. Equifax Inc. and TransUnion each dropped as much as 11% following the comments.
Pulte wrote that "Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have been overcharging Americans for far too long," adding "this will end soon." He said the government was looking at "bi-merge, and stronger solutions." A bi-merge report relies on data and scores from two of the major credit bureaus instead of three, which reduces how many reports get sold.
In a separate post, he said he was instructing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to "approve all lenders to use VantageScore," and on Friday added that they were "studying the usage of just one credit report to bring even more savings than we already have to American consumers."
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Pulte has regularly hammered the cost of credit scores, and his comments have whipsawed these stocks before. Last year he shook up the status quo by deciding FICO scores would face competition from VantageScore Solutions LLC. Housing agencies have also tried to lower mortgage costs by buying mortgage backed securities, but loan rates still climbed as Treasury yields rose, a pattern that has vexed the Trump administration.
TD Cowen's Jaret Seiberg wrote that Pulte likely views "attacking the cost of obtaining mortgages as helpful to the Republican arguments before the midterm that they are tackling affordability," and said Pulte may try to "use Fannie and Freddie to cap the cost of credit reports and credit scores." He added FICO might be less exposed than the credit bureaus because there is "not enough known about VantageScore scoring to know how it compares to FICO." That may mean that for now, "lenders are likely to buy both scores to ensure borrowers get the lowest loan-level pricing adjustment." He also expects more Pulte commentary ahead.
Barclays analyst Manav Patnaik downplayed the impact, writing, "The shock factor is higher than the actual impact," and saying the posts added "nothing materially new."
Pricing pressure on credit data is not just a Beltway debate. It hits the revenue models of Fair Isaac, Equifax, and TransUnion, which is why their shares swung so hard. If bi-merge reports catch on, VantageScore gets wider approval, or lenders shift to a single report, the way scores are bought and paid for could change, and so could what these companies earn. Keep watch on Pulte's next posts and any follow through at Fannie and Freddie, because this storyline is moving real dollars in names many investors hold through index funds.
