FHFA Director Bill Pulte was expected to announce a shift to the bi-merge at the MBA’s conference this week. He ended up skipping the event to join President Trump on the campaign trail.
Analysts worry that FHFA’s aggressive policy moves on credit scores are more about saving consumers money than the safety and soundness of the mortgage system.
The FHFA noted that its OIG budget was nine times larger than the average across federal agencies. Critics say the cuts are intended to protect FHFA Director Bill Pulte and President Trump.
MBS purchase levels at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to disappoint lenders looking for help with interest rates, though prospects look better for September reporting.
The third-party analytics models used by bond traders now accept VantageScore 4.0 loans, but their methodologies were designed before the confusion around loan-level price adjustment grids.
Critics argue that applying the same LLPA pricing grids to VS4 and Classic FICO will camouflage, but not eliminate, the added credit risk associated with the typically higher VS4 score.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will use the same LLPA pricing grid for both VantageScore 4.0 and Classic FICO, eliminating the 20-point haircut they were applying to VS4 loans.