Will allowing lenders to omit one of the three credit scores from the underwriting process reduce costs for borrowers or ensure that some unqualified borrowers inadvertently get a loan they can’t afford?

Lenders argue that dramatic price hikes by FICO have inflated their credit score costs by as much as 500% since 2022.

RCN Capital’s new tri-merge soft credit pull allows investors to qualify for a loan without negatively impacting their credit score.

The Community Home Lenders of America last week wrote to the CEOs of credit bureaus Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, asking them to roll back recent price increases on soft credit pulls.

The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act has bipartisan support in the House. The bill, like its companion bill in the Senate, would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the sale of consumers’ information without their approval.

With the cost of credit reports rising, many lenders have begun increasing their use of cheaper soft pulls for borderline borrowers. However, lenders say credit bureaus are raising the price for those as well.

More than 240,000 renters in properties with Fannie-backed loans reported their rent payments to credit bureaus using the Fannie pilot. Some 58% of them saw their FICO scores increase as a result.

If FHFA follows through on the shift from the tri-merge to a bi-merge system, two million borrowers currently eligible for a GSE mortgage would no longer qualify, according to a report from TransUnion.

Prepayment rates are suppressed due to elevated interest rates, prompting runoff in the Fed’s MBS portfolio to be well below the monthly reduction cap.

Tappable home equity should remain sizable in 2023, signaling opportunity for an uptick in home-equity loans.