FHFA Director Bill Pulte Accuses Credit Bureaus of Overcharging

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte accused Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion of overcharging Americans, signaling that the government is considering regulatory changes to increase competition in the credit-reporting market. Pulte specifically targeted the cost of tri-merge reports, which mortgage lenders use to assess borrower creditworthiness by combining data from all three bureaus.

The move follows data from the Mortgage Bankers Association showing that lenders faced average credit-reporting cost increases of 40% to 50% for 2026. To mitigate these expenses, the FHFA is considering a bi-merge approach and has already begun allowing lenders to use VantageScore 4.0 alongside the Classic FICO model.

TransUnion attributed the rising costs to changes implemented by FICO. However, Pulte indicated that the current practice of high-cost tri-merge reports would soon end. Previous statements from Pulte regarding these costs have led to significant declines in the share prices of the three major bureaus.