Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO) announced that it will begin offering its FICO Scores directly to mortgage resellers, enabling them to calculate and distribute credit scores directly to customers without intermediaries.
In a prepared statement, FICO said this will bring greater price transparency and increased cost savings for mortgage lenders, mortgage brokers, and other industry participants.
Under the plan, FICO will also make both of its mortgage score pricing models available to the three nationwide credit bureaus on the same terms. However, FICO does not control any additional pricing markups the bureaus may impose in their channels.
The action helped the company’s stock recover from the hit it took when FHFA announced that it would immediately implement the acceptance of VantageScore 4.0 for mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in July (a move many regarded as a challenge to FICO’s long-standing dominance in the mortgage market).
What Will This Mean for the Industry?
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte continued his trend of weighing in via X (formerly Twitter), stating in a post that “While [FICO’s] decision is a first step, it is appreciated. I encourage the Credit Bureau’s to also take similar creative and constructive actions to make our markets safer, stronger, and more competitive.”
“FICO’s direct-licensing model is a timely step toward open, data-driven credit ecosystems,” said Sandeep Shivam, Associate Director at Tavant. “For lenders and mortgage platforms, this enables credit insights to flow directly into AI-powered workflows, driving faster, more transparent loan decisions.
“For borrowers, it means fairer access, quicker turnarounds, and fewer information bottlenecks,” Shivam added. “As technology partners, we must ensure these integrations are seamless, compliant, and intelligently orchestrated for real-time, borrower-centric lending.”
“Today marks a turning point in how credit scores are delivered and priced across the mortgage industry,” said Will Lansing, CEO of FICO, said in a press release. “Direct licensing of the FICO Score brings transparency, competition, and cost-efficiency to the mortgage lending process. This change eliminates unnecessary mark-ups on the FICO Score and puts pricing model choice in the hands of those who use FICO Scores to drive mortgage decisions.”
Curtis R. Knuth, President and CEO of NCS/Service 1st, said it’s difficult to determine the impact FICO’s move will have on the industry, as the program is still in the implementation stage.
“Credit scores are extremely complex; there are so many entities involved—companies like us, credit reporting agencies, etc. There are a lot of people who have a hand in that transaction,” Knuth said. “In terms of all of the different contractual relationships that are occurring, even before the information is passed to the resellers, it’s difficult to comment on because we’re just not privy to it.”
