The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced today that in response to public input, it is making changes to its planned implementation of new credit score requirements for single-family loans acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Specifically, the agency will release historical data on the VantageScore 4.0 model early in the third quarter of 2024 and will work towards providing similar data to support the transition to the FICO 10T model.
In addition, FHFA said that it will align implementation of the transition from the classic FICO credit score model and the bi-merge credit reporting requirement so both will take place in the fourth quarter of 2025. Finally, the agency is announcing more stakeholder forums for sharing perspectives on the sequencing of project milestones and expected uses of the historical data to support the new models.
In a letter to the agency, ABA and seven associations urged FHFA to release the data behind the decisions, saying that transparency “will greatly enhance and facilitate productive implementation planning discussions in FHFA’s and the enterprises’ ongoing public engagement sessions.”