FHFA’s Pulte expected to announce move to bi-merge credit checks at MBA event
“(Pulte) said those are going to become publicly available,” McKay said. “It will definitely be available as loans are being securitized, so it’ll get out eventually. That’s a massive deal. It could mean the end of credit scores for a lot of mortgages, not all. It’s not the death of credit scores — auto companies will still probably use them.”
Still work to be done
The credit reporting issues likely won’t go away even with a move to bi-merge. Kimber White, outgoing president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB), said there needs to be an effort to make sure all credit reporting is done to all three bureaus.
“If you want to fix this, you get the bureaus together and get their reporting figured out,” White told Mortgage Professional America in December. “How about us going down to the bureaus and saying, ‘Figure out how y’all can report together.’ That fixes it. The big difference is the way it’s reporting and who it’s reporting to. We have AI. We have the best ability to pull data in the world right now, but the credit reports are still a mystery. That makes no sense to me.”
Nevertheless, it appears to be the latest example of Pulte getting changes to the mortgage industry done first by posting about it on social media. McKay said he urges brokers to not only follow along with what Pulte is saying, but be sure to engage with him to encourage continued industry reforms.
