Key Takeaways
- On April 22, 2026, FHFA and HUD jointly announced that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA will accept VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T for mortgage underwriting, ending the single-model era.
- The mandate follows Fannie Mae’s November 2025 Selling Guide update removing the 620 minimum score from Desktop Underwriter, giving the three credit bureaus a structural revenue tailwind on trended-data products.
- TransUnion (NYSE:TRU), Equifax (NYSE:EFX), Experian (OTC:EXPGY), Upstart Holdings (NASDAQ:UPST) and OneMain Holdings (NYSE:OMF) sit at five distinct points on the rollout.
A Discrete Catalyst, Not A Theme
The credit score modernization trade stopped being a thesis on April 22, 2026. FHFA Director Bill Pulte and HUD Secretary Scott Turner confirmed that FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would accept VantageScore 4.0 immediately through a rollout to 21 lenders, with FICO 10T behind it. The decision layered onto Fannie Mae’s November 2025 Selling Guide change, which stripped the 620 minimum from Desktop Underwriter.
The private market was already moving. By February 2026, more than 40 lenders had joined the FICO Score 10T Adopter Program for non-conforming loans, and Cardinal Financial traded the first VA MBS pool decisioned with 10T in late 2024. Both models require 24 to 30 months of payment history rather than a single-month snapshot, so every origination pulls a richer, more margin-accretive data package from each bureau. A plain-language scoring model primer covers what the models penalize or reward.
TransUnion: US Markets Doing The Work
TransUnion (NYSE:TRU) reported Q4 2025 revenue of $1,171 million, up 13%, with US Markets revenue …
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