Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

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GSE Move to Bi-Merge Credit Score Process Faces Pushback

Tues Oct 31,2023 - [e-mail]



The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s plan to allow lenders to collect credit reports from just two of the national consumer reporting agencies instead of all three continues to face headwinds. That’s despite FHFA last month delaying the implementation of the change that will apply to the government-sponsored enterprises.

Recently, eight Republican members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs raised concerns about the plan. In a letter to FHFA Director Sandra Thompson, they warned that FHFA’s plan to shift from a tri-merge to a bi-merge model would reduce, rather than increase, the amount of information available to lenders, which they said could harm prospective buyers.

Absent more thorough public feedback on the proposal, the Republicans urged Thompson to scrap the shift to a bi-merge.

TransUnion — one of the three national credit reporting bureaus — also recently released a report highlighting the negative impact of a move to a bi-merge system. Among other issues, TransUnion said omitting a credit score could have a determining impact on whether a loan applicant is approved for a mortgage.