VantageScore 4.0 is now available to all Fannie Mae– and Freddie Mac-approved single-family lenders, allowing sellers to choose between Classic FICO and the newer model, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte announced on social media.
Both announcements — made via Fannie Mae’s Lender Letter LL-2026-06 and Freddie Mac’s Bulletin 2026-H on Wednesday — expand what had been a limited rollout of VantageScore 4.0 into a broad, programwide option for conventional loans sold to the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs).
FICO Score 10T is not yet eligible for delivery to either GSE. On social media, Pulte said he is in discussions with FICO over pricing.
“Just like I asked Vantage, I have asked FICO to provide competitive pricing to the market for their FICO 10T product. It seems that FICO is not interested in offering competitive costs but instead uses various means to increase price on the American people. So unnecessary,” he said.
FICO did not immediately reply to HousingWire’s request for comment.
Pulte also announced changes in the secondary market via social media. He wrote that “ALL Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), ALL Credit Risk Transfers (CRT), and ANY Securitized Product issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will now carry a VantageScore, in addition to a FICO score.”
“One company cannot hold the market hostage. Americans and Investors and the market want change,” Pulte said.
Classic FICO remains on manual underwrites
Effective immediately, lenders may originate and deliver eligible loans to the GSEs using either the traditional Classic FICO score model or VantageScore 4.0.
But when a lender elects to use VantageScore 4.0, both GSEs require that the same credit score model be used for all borrowers on the loan. Lenders cannot mix Classic FICO and VantageScore 4.0 scores among borrowers on the same mortgage.
For manually underwritten loans, lenders and sellers must continue to use Classic FICO only and comply with existing minimum credit score requirements.
Fannie has updated its loan-level price adjustment (LLPA) matrix to include pricing guidance for loans delivered using the VantageScore 4.0 credit score model. Meanwhile, Freddie updated Exhibit 19, Credit Fees, to add base grids and custom mortgage insurance option grids specific to each credit score model, including VantageScore 4.0.
HousingWire reached out to the GSEs and FHFA for more details on the pricing grids, but they did not immediately respond.
According to the GSEs’ websites, pricing adjustments for FICO scores are applied to VantageScore 4.0 scores at 20 points higher. The top purchase tier for FICO remains at 780+, equivalent to the new VantageScore bucket of 800+. This makes official what had already been the practice among lenders participating in a limited rollout.
For lenders not yet ready to operationalize VantageScore 4.0, Fannie and Freddie will continue to accept Classic FICO scores. Both GSEs stated that the changes are effective immediately.
Alternatives to the tri-merge model?
Under both policies, if a lender chooses VantageScore 4.0 for an eligible loan, the lender must request VantageScore 4.0 from each of the three national credit repositories when ordering a new credit report.
Pulte said discussions on alternatives to the tri-merge model are happening with the credit bureaus.
“We have been meeting with various credit bureaus, and this week we will be meeting with all three credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — and are focused on lowering costs while also studying using only a single credit report and bi-merge credit reporting. Stay tuned,” he posted on X.
“In the era of AI, credit bureaus and credit scoring companies need to add real value to hold their prices, much less dramatically increase their prices,” he added. “Unfortunately, I see these companies more focused on pricing, which could lead some to ruin, than innovation and competition.”
An analysis published on Monday by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) showed that the monthly volume of VantageScore 4.0 loans remained low but rose in August to 5.6% of the total.
Almost all of that VS 4.0 volume — roughly 99% — is being delivered by Rocket Mortgage and United Wholesale Mortgage. Both pushed deeper into VS4 in August, with Rocket’s VS4 share of its GSE production rising to 30%, up from 17% in July, and UWM’s share increasing to 25.3%, up from 19.8% the month prior.
Despite these gains, overall industry penetration is still limited because most other approved lenders are delivering little to no VS4 volume. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has not yet rolled out a VS 4.0 program for its lenders.
“Based on our conversations with companies in our coverage universe, we believe that VantageScore is currently being seen as a way to potentially broaden the mortgage market as opposed to a way to cut costs, so we believe most lenders are still pulling FICO scores for almost all loans (although loans are submitted with one score),” KBW analysts wrote.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include Bill Pulte’s comments on the secondary market and changes to the GSEs’ pricing grids.