The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) is backing the decision of Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac publicly disclose their own credit score numbers for mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.
In a letter sent to Pulte on Tuesday, the trade group said that making additional credit performance data available could improve transparency in the mortgage market, thereby helping investors assess prepayment speeds and the credit performance of underlying loans.
The group also commended Pulte for his recent action to “require conventional mortgages and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac credit score to go along with a FICO Classic or VantageScore number.”
“CHLA believes your efforts to have more data available to assess prepayment speeds and credit performance of the underlying mortgages will improve market efficiency and ultimately the safety and soundness of the overall U.S. mortgage market,” the group wrote.
CHLA also said additional market data and comparative metrics could help curb increases in the cost of mortgage credit scores, which the group said have become an annual occurrence.
The group has previously called for changes to the mortgage credit scoring market. In its letter this week, CHLA said credit score price increases have occurred each fall since 2022. The group said it correctly predicted price increases for 2025 and 2026 — and it expects another for 2027.
CHLA said it has supported the implementation of VantageScore in the mortgage market but has also called for expanding the number of potential suppliers of mortgage credit score algorithms.
Since May 2025, the group said that it has advocated for as many as four suppliers, including credit scoring algorithms developed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. CHLA said Pulte’s announcement represents an initial step toward that goal.
The organization previously urged the FHFA to expand VantageScore adoption and called for the government-sponsored enterprises to develop their own methods for evaluating borrower creditworthiness using internal data and analytics.
CHLA also has called for removing references to Fair Isaac, the company behind FICO scores, from GSE guidelines and replacing them with generic credit score requirements.
The group said it expects the reforms to become integrated into the broader mortgage market over time and provide additional competition against credit score price increases.
This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication.
