What the agency is proposing
A person familiar with the plan said the Federal Housing Finance Agency is preparing to tell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that lenders should obtain credit information from only two of the main bureaus instead of all three. Right now, mortgages sold to the companies must include a tri-merge report that blends data from Equifax Inc., Experian Plc, and TransUnion.
The same person said Director Bill Pulte could announce the move on Oct. 12, aligning with his scheduled appearance during a planned stop at a Chicago mortgage industry conference. FHFA did not immediately comment.
Why Pulte is pushing this
Pulte has consistently pressed FICO and the credit bureaus to cut fees to bring down closing costs, while the Trump administration seeks to ease an affordability squeeze stemming from elevated home prices and mortgage rates that have been climbing. On Sept. 3, he posted that the agency was "seriously considering bi-merge."
This is a revival. The FHFA first outlined a two-bureau approach during the Biden administration, but it was delayed over concerns about how well lenders could price mortgage risk. In October 2023, eight Senate Banking Committee Republicans urged then-Director Sandra Thompson to halt the change, writing, "We cannot afford a reduction in the accuracy and predictive power of data provided to the taxpayer-backed Enterprises with no meaningful benefits for consumers."
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Other recent changes tied to Pulte
This potential shift follows Pulte giving the green light to the use of credit scores from VantageScore, a joint venture of the three bureaus. Earlier this week, he said Fannie and Freddie would adopt a single pricing grid that treats VantageScore 4.0 as equivalent to Classic FICO. That would replace grids the companies issued three weeks earlier that treated VantageScore results as about 20 points higher than FICO for the same borrower.
If finalized, the two-bureau requirement would likely start one to three months after it is announced, according to the person familiar with the timing. For context, Fannie and Freddie, the government-controlled companies that underpin the mortgage market, buy loans and package them into securities for investors, and rely on pricing grids to determine the upfront fees on the mortgages they take in.
What this could mean for your portfolio
If enacted, the change would reduce how many credit reports are required for loans going to Fannie and Freddie. In New York after-hours trading on Thursday at 4:56 p.m., TransUnion fell 4.7% and Equifax dropped 5.9%. For everyday portfolios, fewer required reports may change costs in the mortgage pipeline, which in turn can influence how these companies earn.
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