Congress is taking direct aim at the FICO score, which to date has been the most widely used measure of credit worthiness. The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports:
Lawmakers last week proposed adding a provision to a bank-deregulation bill that would require mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider credit scores beyond Fair IsaacCorp.’s FICO -0.59% FICO score for determining a mortgage applicant’s creditworthiness. Fannie and Freddie backed nearly half of all U.S. mortgage dollars originated in 2017, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.
The measure, should it become law, would be a big win for VantageScore, a credit-score system by VantageScore Solutions LLC, owned by three large credit-reporting firms: Equifax Inc., EFX -0.90%TransUnion TRU -0.32% and Experian EXPGY -0.29% PLC.
VantageScore is already used in certain loan sectors and is FICO’s biggest competitor. FICO remains the dominant score for U.S. consumer lending. It also has a big hold on mortgage-related business because its score is the only one lenders can use for mortgages they plan to sell to Fannie and Freddie.
