A New Credit Score Option—But Will It Really Help?

Loan Officer Freedom

Carl White

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5 • 743 Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Episode 566

Welcome to Loan Officer Freedom, the #1 podcast in the country for loan officers, hosted by Carl White.

In this episode, your host, Carl White, is joined by Owen Lee to break down the FHFA’s recent announcement that lenders can now use the VantageScore 4.0 with Fannie and Freddie—no new infrastructure required.

Owen, who serves as Vice Chair of the MBA, unpacks what this change really means for loan officers and whether it’s a genuine effort to lower credit report costs or just a flashy move from the same credit bureaus that already control the game.

They dive into the skyrocketing cost of credit pulls, the oligarchy of the credit scoring world, and the practical challenges this update presents for pricing, mortgage insurance, and secondary market execution.

You’ll hear how VantageScore aims to help underserved borrowers—but also why it may not be the silver bullet it seems at first glance.

This episode is packed with insight, industry advocacy, and some straight talk about where credit reporting is headed and how it could impact your daily business.

Schedule a one-on-one free coaching call, click here or visit LoanOfficerStrategyCall.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So a little bit of breaking news with Owen Lee.
0:10.7	So Owen, you talked a little bit on the breakfast club this morning about the vantage score.
0:20.0	And we might can start using that sometime in the near-ish future
0:25.9	or maybe right away, and the idea behind this is maybe drop the price of the credit scores
0:32.8	because they've just gotten outrageously expensive. Bring us up to speed.
0:38.0	Well, here's really where we are with this, Carl, and some very interesting news.
0:44.3	So if you are on X or Twitter or whatever you want to call it and you want to follow somebody
0:52.0	very interesting, I would suggest that you follow Bill Pulte,
0:55.6	who's the director of the FHFA,
0:58.9	Federal Housing Finance Authority.
1:01.7	And so he is the conservator currently
1:04.4	for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
1:06.7	So just think of him as the CEO of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
1:11.2	Due to a Supreme Court decision about four years ago, the FHFA director is now a basically
1:17.6	a political appointee.
1:20.1	And Bill Pulte tweets often.
1:22.9	He tweets or posts, you know, whatever your flavor, probably three, four times a day. And really is
1:31.2	kind of playing to an audience of one, which is the president of the United States. And so about
1:40.5	a month ago, maybe not quite a month ago, he tweeted big news coming in one to three weeks.
1:46.8	And we all saw that.
1:48.2	I posted about it on LinkedIn.
1:50.3	I followed this stuff very closely in my capacity as vice chair, the MBA.
	...

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